Endometriosis

Hi Ladies:

I am looking for some advice for my 17 y.o. daughter.  We have been to many different doctors trying to figure out what is going on with her.  Low back pain, constipation ( getting a little better, because she's taking digestive enzymes), frequent UTI's, severe rectal pressure at times (not associated with bowel movements), occasional incontinence, are most serious of the symptoms.  She has normal periods, not heavy or extremely painful.  I do not have endometriosis, but every female on her father's side has/had endometriosis.  We have our first appt with the GYN today, but from research and talking to people that have this it is sometimes not seen with a pelvic exam (speculum)??  Is this what others have heard as well.  I really have a strong suspicion that this is what she has.   What kind of tests have others had to confirm the diagnosis???We have been to a back specialist, general practioner, urologist, ER doctor that did a CT scan of her abdomen- that showed extreme constipation, chiropractor and nutritionist.  We are "DOCTORED OUT" and with only a small margin of relief.

Any advice would be so appreciated!!

Thanks Girls!!

Hi, sorry you are going through this, I bet is hard to see your daughter suffer.

The only way to diagnose endometriosis is with a laparoscopy, what is surgery. But, from my experience it is not as bad as it sounds. I delayed my surgery one year and a half, and when I finally did it, I regreted to have posponed it. It was not too bad and it was the first big step to solve this problem. It opened the door to motherhood for me.

In your daughter's case you may be looking to solve other issues. But that is what is supposed to be done. Let me know if you have more questions about the surgery.

Good luck

MAR

Hi-thanks for the info on the sx.  Since my post, we had our first GYN appt.  Even though the list of my daughter's symptoms is extensive (at least to me.) The Dr. did not feel like the things we were describing to him screamed endometriosis.  We left kind of feeling like -now what??  My daughter has very frequent UTI's and we have even been to a urologist, a nutritionist for probiotics, and structurally everything is "fine and in working order".  She swears she had a UTI when we went to the GYN, but it was negative.  So I'm not sure what it is, and he said her pelvic exam was normal.  I'm not sure how much he could tell with the physical exam anyway in terms of endo?? He did not suggest that she should have this surgery at this point, however, my concern was if we suspect this is the case I don't want to MISS getting her proper treatment and possibly have this disease do more damage.  My thought is that if we know for sure that it is or is not endo we can either keep looking for a cause to her symptoms and pain or treat it knowing exactly what it is.  I do not want her to incur more damage to her internal organs and possibilty of motherhood later on in life.  For now, while we try to solve the mystery we are going to put her on the pill to see if this helps with some of the abdominal pain and rectal pressure among other things.  So we will see how that goes.  I know it can prevent the growth of the endometrial lining, but can it take care of anything that is already there???

Thanks for providing your expertise in this area.  I am quickly finding out that this can be somewhat of a mystery disease in terms of the range of symptoms:((

Melissa