I have just been told I have adhesions in my cervex and my ovary is stuck to me uterus. Is this likely to be endometriosis

[susanu]

I have never had children and have had no operations to cause this. I am 50 and still have periods

[Impatient]

It might be but adhesions can start growing for any trauma or damage at any time at all.

Adhesions are scar tissue from bumps, bashes, thumps, strains, sexual activity, sports, lifting heavy objects , straining on the loo, any excessive movement of organs or muscles or any surgery or pregnancy can cause your bits and bobs to be injured and start to grow adhesions. Everyone has them to some degree. Not everyone's adhesions grow and grow and grow, some lucky folk grow just enough to protect the damaged site and stop.

Your's could be endo or could just have started because at some point you had an ovarian cysts that perhaps burst or leaked and deflated a long time ago and scar tissue grew on the wound site and didn't stop and eventually stuck like glue to the uterus.

If you didn't have any other symptoms of endo, then you might be lucky and it's just one of those things. If you have a lap op and they do discover endo, then you have the option to have the ovary removed if it's giving you trouble. You can survive perfectly well on just one ovary.

[susanu in reply to Impatient]

Many thanks for this. You have explained it much better than my GP. Does anyway know if the removal of an ovary is done by an lap op.

[Impatient in reply to susanu]

Yes ovary can be done by lap, provided you are okay for a lap, health and weight wise. The cervical adhesions if inside can be tackled from below. and if there are adhesions around the outside of the cervix then they can be tackled with a lap usually, but depends on the severity and the surgeon might find it easier to tackle with an open cut excision, like a C-section hole called a laparotomy.

[Juleyanne]

Probably is the answer. Endometrial lesions cause inflammation and the body's way of responding to inflammation is to produce a sticky substance which can glue organs to adjacent organs (picture what happens to spagetti when it gets cold). I agree with previous comment it is more than likely you have had cysts which have burst at some point on your ovaries or ovary. Apparently it is common for woman throughout their fertile years to form cysts on the ovaries which often you know little about bar perhaps a painful period. However,

although most cysts come and go, others can be more problematic and when they do eventually burst, they cause quite a inflammatory response and that can trigger formation of adhesions.

Obviously endo is thought to be caused by retrograde menstruation, cells from inside the womb not being flushed out with menstruation and travelling to other sites in the pelvis, stomach, bowel and bladder where they often cause havoc. Even experts still are not 100% sure why this happens in some women when cells/old blood goes the wrong way instead of leaving the body, but anything the body doesn't recognize it will often attack, prompting an inflammatory response and adhesions often follow quickly behind and form, sticking internal organs to neighbouring organs. Every case is different, some women will have ovary stuck to bowel others the bladder is affected, in my case the fallopian tubes which had previously been removed due to endo and were reduced to stumps.

The stump on one side stuck to ovary, the other side ovary stuck to bowel and they even found endo/adhesions had travelled into my stomach round belly button. So as you can see it is not straightforward one size fits all. Surgery, particularly invasive surgery often just causes more inflammation and ultimately more adhesions with each op. Some people are more prone to adhesions than others. If you are one of the unlucky ones, your body will overeact to any internal inflammation quite aggressively and you might then be prone to adhesion formation more than perhaps the woman in the next bed with a similar op. Hope that explains it ok.

[susanu in reply to Juleyanne]

Thanks for replying. I hope I have not got this horrible disease but if I have it is nice to know there is support out there.

[EOLHPC]

Sounds sort of like what I'm hearing from doctors. I'm 59 and am a DES daughter. My mother was on DES for 9 months when pregnant with me. Back in the early '70s doctors were warned to stop prescribing DES to pregnant women due to serious problems affecting the reproductive organs of their daughters (and sons). It was international news. Most exposure in the womb began in the '50s, but many drs continued to prescribe DES (stilboesterol) for years after the warnings went out. Julleyanne & impatient's information sounds spot on to me. I only mention DES in case your mother is still live nd could remember being prescribed DES while pregnant with you. Most consultants try not o mention DES, so very few omen know bout it. But now that many DES daughters are menopausal, more significant problems are flaring up, and so the NHS has had o devise a protocol for monitoring DES daughters. For instance, I have annual colposcopies. I understand, from my very good DES Action forum, that endometriosis occurs in DES daughters and may be characteristic of the drugs effects.

[susanu in reply to EOLHPC]

I have never heard of this and will talk to my mum. However she is 82 and in bad health so I don't think she will remember. Also she would feel "guilty" if she thought my trouble now was caused by her taking something. Thanks for the info though

[Juleyanne]

This is news to me too. I'll look it up.