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Stage 4 Endometriosis & Fertility/General Health
I'm a loving husband to an amazing woman who's been going through a lot of health issues over the last 6 years. I was hopeful I could explain our situation and get some advice on how to best support her in trying times and have a good strategy on what to do next.
My wife and I are currently both turning 37 this spring. About 5 years ago she started having abnormally painful periods and spotting throughout her cycle which was definitely abnormal for her. Sex also would be painful here and there and her digestion started to get worse and worse. We went and saw a gyno thinking she had endometriosis and they did some testing and determined there wasn't any present and it was likely more related to hormonal imbalances and some food sensitivities.
We [wasted] the next couple of years chasing these ideas - she had her hormones tested and yes they were off, so we started working to address that problem. We had food sensitivity tests done and made changes to our dietary habits. We already lived VERY healthy but made an effort to be even more healthy in our decisions. Long story short the symptoms continued to get worse despite all our efforts.
About 2 years ago we decided to start trying to get pregnant. Her thought was "I know this is endometriosis despite what they said, but pregnancy somewhat solves that situation if it's minor so let's try and get pregnant." We had pushed off getting pregnant for several years because of all of these symptoms but her logic seemed sound so we went for it. We started trying and after about 1 year hadn't gotten pregnant. We saw a fertility specialist and she did some testing and found my wife DID have endometriosis. Not only was it present but it appeared to be quite bad. We had an ultrasound done and then a CT scan and found she had it present on her vaginal walls, on her cervix, and in the space between her reproductive organs and her colon and potentially invading her colon. One of her tubes was completely destroyed; not blocked but destroyed to the point of not being repairable. The other was still functional but our odds of getting pregnant because of all of this were about 12% in a month the working tube DID drop an egg.
We were pretty devastated. She was right all along - her IBS-like symptoms were in fact related to endo tissue putting pressure on her colon and causing her to have the sensation she had to go to the bathroom all the time. We went and saw a specialist to see what our options were and he said it was definitely Stage 4 Endo and the only way to treat it was lap surgery with 3-4 day hospital stay thereafter and likely a colo-rectal surgeon on-hand to do a partial colon resection as well if the colon wall had been damaged.
We are both in the medical field and all of this terrified my wife. She's quite anti-modern medicine and always thinks there's a naturopathic way to cure everything. She's had surgeries before and responded very well but she had a bad gut feeling about this one and has had 2 co-workers of hers have this type of surgery and wake up to horrible news, change in bowl function and multiple follow-up surgeries to fix "new" problems from the original surgery. I have been as positive as I can be on the topic with hopes her mind would change on it although I would be lying if I said the whole situation didn't terrify me.
We were told that we had 2 options; try and get pregnant which would be challenging and have our 1-2 children and then address this surgically after she's done breastfeeding with the idea that there would be little-to-no change if we were to get pregnant/breastfeed as hormonal levels during that time would cause the tissue not to worsen OR treat it now and have the surgery knowing she would have an increased rate of fertility the 12-18 months following the procedure.
My wife couldn't bring herself to do the surgery so we've spent the last 12 months trying to get pregnant still. Now we are 24 months in on trying, her symptoms have gotten a bit worse and all I can think about is 1) she's making a complicated surgery worse by continuing to wait and 2) we are never going to get pregnant till her endo is addressed.
Our families sat down with her recently and we had the discussion on what to do - I am really pushing her to get the surgery done now so we can give ourselves the best chance of having children and alleviate all of her symptoms she has daily that are a visible reminder to both of us that she's not well and definitely causes us to live in a day-to-day "funk". She still has a bad gut feeling on it and wants to continue to try to get pregnant and thinks/hopes a miracle will occur and all of it will just go away although she's starting to come around to the idea.
My biggest concern is she actually has more damage occur, loses her other tube potentially to where pregnancy isn't an option and/or she has irreversible damage to her colon and other organs that could change her future-health permanently. I feel like those issues are more important than us having children at this point. She has the opposite view and through fear of the surgery and the complications that can come with it wants to continue to try and get pregnant every month and "deal with this later".
What would you do in my shoes to support her yet continue to stress that her long-term health is more important than us having a baby knowing the odds of her surgery going well are very high AND we will likely have much better odds having our first child if we get this procedure done?
I feel she's making an emotional decision out of fear rather than a rational one but want to be as supportive as I can regardless. I would just hate for us to continue to let this go untreated and run the risk of never having children (we're getting old!) AND her having permanent damage to her colon that could cause devastating issues she has to live with the rest of her life.
Thanks so much for any advice/suggestions you can provide. I want my wife back - a good portion of our marriage has been spent stressing over her health and I'm hopeful we can have resolve to it soon.
My wife and I are currently both turning 37 this spring. About 5 years ago she started having abnormally painful periods and spotting throughout her cycle which was definitely abnormal for her. Sex also would be painful here and there and her digestion started to get worse and worse. We went and saw a gyno thinking she had endometriosis and they did some testing and determined there wasn't any present and it was likely more related to hormonal imbalances and some food sensitivities.
We [wasted] the next couple of years chasing these ideas - she had her hormones tested and yes they were off, so we started working to address that problem. We had food sensitivity tests done and made changes to our dietary habits. We already lived VERY healthy but made an effort to be even more healthy in our decisions. Long story short the symptoms continued to get worse despite all our efforts.
About 2 years ago we decided to start trying to get pregnant. Her thought was "I know this is endometriosis despite what they said, but pregnancy somewhat solves that situation if it's minor so let's try and get pregnant." We had pushed off getting pregnant for several years because of all of these symptoms but her logic seemed sound so we went for it. We started trying and after about 1 year hadn't gotten pregnant. We saw a fertility specialist and she did some testing and found my wife DID have endometriosis. Not only was it present but it appeared to be quite bad. We had an ultrasound done and then a CT scan and found she had it present on her vaginal walls, on her cervix, and in the space between her reproductive organs and her colon and potentially invading her colon. One of her tubes was completely destroyed; not blocked but destroyed to the point of not being repairable. The other was still functional but our odds of getting pregnant because of all of this were about 12% in a month the working tube DID drop an egg.
We were pretty devastated. She was right all along - her IBS-like symptoms were in fact related to endo tissue putting pressure on her colon and causing her to have the sensation she had to go to the bathroom all the time. We went and saw a specialist to see what our options were and he said it was definitely Stage 4 Endo and the only way to treat it was lap surgery with 3-4 day hospital stay thereafter and likely a colo-rectal surgeon on-hand to do a partial colon resection as well if the colon wall had been damaged.
We are both in the medical field and all of this terrified my wife. She's quite anti-modern medicine and always thinks there's a naturopathic way to cure everything. She's had surgeries before and responded very well but she had a bad gut feeling about this one and has had 2 co-workers of hers have this type of surgery and wake up to horrible news, change in bowl function and multiple follow-up surgeries to fix "new" problems from the original surgery. I have been as positive as I can be on the topic with hopes her mind would change on it although I would be lying if I said the whole situation didn't terrify me.
We were told that we had 2 options; try and get pregnant which would be challenging and have our 1-2 children and then address this surgically after she's done breastfeeding with the idea that there would be little-to-no change if we were to get pregnant/breastfeed as hormonal levels during that time would cause the tissue not to worsen OR treat it now and have the surgery knowing she would have an increased rate of fertility the 12-18 months following the procedure.
My wife couldn't bring herself to do the surgery so we've spent the last 12 months trying to get pregnant still. Now we are 24 months in on trying, her symptoms have gotten a bit worse and all I can think about is 1) she's making a complicated surgery worse by continuing to wait and 2) we are never going to get pregnant till her endo is addressed.
Our families sat down with her recently and we had the discussion on what to do - I am really pushing her to get the surgery done now so we can give ourselves the best chance of having children and alleviate all of her symptoms she has daily that are a visible reminder to both of us that she's not well and definitely causes us to live in a day-to-day "funk". She still has a bad gut feeling on it and wants to continue to try to get pregnant and thinks/hopes a miracle will occur and all of it will just go away although she's starting to come around to the idea.
My biggest concern is she actually has more damage occur, loses her other tube potentially to where pregnancy isn't an option and/or she has irreversible damage to her colon and other organs that could change her future-health permanently. I feel like those issues are more important than us having children at this point. She has the opposite view and through fear of the surgery and the complications that can come with it wants to continue to try and get pregnant every month and "deal with this later".
What would you do in my shoes to support her yet continue to stress that her long-term health is more important than us having a baby knowing the odds of her surgery going well are very high AND we will likely have much better odds having our first child if we get this procedure done?
I feel she's making an emotional decision out of fear rather than a rational one but want to be as supportive as I can regardless. I would just hate for us to continue to let this go untreated and run the risk of never having children (we're getting old!) AND her having permanent damage to her colon that could cause devastating issues she has to live with the rest of her life.
Thanks so much for any advice/suggestions you can provide. I want my wife back - a good portion of our marriage has been spent stressing over her health and I'm hopeful we can have resolve to it soon.
U can start reversing this condition in a few months. The cause: higher than average prolactin levels from your pituitary gland it’s a endo problem.
Treatment: prolactin lowering drugs such as 1mg cabergoline, dostinex and bromacromptine.
Time frame: few weeks to months to start seeing symptoms improve
How long do u stay on these drugs: as long as you need to normally a few years. As it took years to get like this in the first place. No need to be cutting things out of your body. Higher prolactin causes thickening of the womb during pregnancy, when u are not pregnant and it’s still high it will cause thickening of everything else unless u treat it.
Most doctors and consultants are poorly trained in this field and will dismiss you when you bring it up. Having prolactin in the normal range doesn’t mean your prolactin isn’t high for you as the range is quite wide. Try the drug yourself once/twice a week it won’t harm you and is actually used as a anti ageing medication too.
When u are ready to get pregnant stop taking the drug wait and month.
Btw using this drug will vastly improve your sex life.
It will also improve a mans sexual performance dramatically if taken the day before sex.
You only need to take this drug every 5 days to treat the condition. Cabergoline 1mg.
For a man only use when u need it. Cabergoline 1mg.
Treatment: prolactin lowering drugs such as 1mg cabergoline, dostinex and bromacromptine.
Time frame: few weeks to months to start seeing symptoms improve
How long do u stay on these drugs: as long as you need to normally a few years. As it took years to get like this in the first place. No need to be cutting things out of your body. Higher prolactin causes thickening of the womb during pregnancy, when u are not pregnant and it’s still high it will cause thickening of everything else unless u treat it.
Most doctors and consultants are poorly trained in this field and will dismiss you when you bring it up. Having prolactin in the normal range doesn’t mean your prolactin isn’t high for you as the range is quite wide. Try the drug yourself once/twice a week it won’t harm you and is actually used as a anti ageing medication too.
When u are ready to get pregnant stop taking the drug wait and month.
Btw using this drug will vastly improve your sex life.
It will also improve a mans sexual performance dramatically if taken the day before sex.
You only need to take this drug every 5 days to treat the condition. Cabergoline 1mg.
For a man only use when u need it. Cabergoline 1mg.
Hi,friend. maybe you can give herbal medicine fuyan pills a shot, google it,then you will find all informations you needed. One of my friend on facebook was cured by this pills,and to be honest,i'm suffering from some gynecological diseases and planning to give this herbs a shot too. and here is the doctor i'm consulting with,Dr.Lee ,hope my shared information will help you.
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