Endometriosis as a Teenager

This is a disease close to my heart that I have suffered twice in my life. It is a painful disease. Doctors told me when I was sixteen almost seventeen that it was caused by delaying pregnancy. Pregnancy was not on my to-do list at that young age so it left me very confused. The other thing it is said when I did some research about it years ago is it is also caused by endogamy. Doctors didn't tell me much about the disease the first time because I was young. The second time around I was ready for them.

Well, let's start with the simple truths about this disease. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Doctors told me that if it ever came back it would be cancer. In my case they were wrong. I suffered the first time with it for four months before the doctors even found it. During this time I was in my junior year of high school and trying to concentrate on schoolwork while being in pain the whole twenty-four hours of a day. I would get two hours of sleep per night due to the pain. There was no schedule to follow for my menstrual cycle either. It could be ten days or when every it thought about it. Made dressing fun. The doctor saw me every two weeks for the four months and at the end of that time was when he found a tumor. I went from a size eighteen down to a size ten at this time as well. I was taking two Excedrin every two hours just to make the pain tolerable. I am not saying that is the course to take. I hated to eat as that made the pain worse and it usually came right after I got the pain down to tolerable. Luckily I had friends who thought they didn't know what I had made me eat.

The second time my endometriosis came back; I was in vocational school and it took the doctor a year to find it because I had a whole different set of symptoms. I had intermittent pain and couldn't keep food down and looked like I was four months pregnant. When they did the second surgery it was a mess for the doctor as the endometriosis was attached to all my abdominal organs. The doctor the second time was the doctor who had delivered me and he was just as surprised as I was. He showed me the video that said one in ten ever get it back. He explained to me that it wasn't caused by anything my mother had done while she was carrying me either. I had to have two units of blood as there was so much blood.

Endometriosis is where the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus and attaches to anything it is allowed too. The first time it attached to my ovary so the ovary had to go. The cyst was the size of a cantaloupe The second time around it attached to my bowel, back the outside of the uterus and all abdominal organs. They could do a myomectomy to stop the growth but they chose not to in my case. A myomectomy is where they take the first lining of your uterus. This as I understood it was if you were pregnant the baby would attach itself.

A hysterectomy is considered now the course of last resort. I am glad I had it done when I did because otherwise I would have had to have it done every 5 years. I was put on hormones for 5 years before the doctors found out I was allergic to them as well. I have been hormone-free for about 26 years. I have no problems and I have no need for a female doctor anymore because as long as I don't take hormones I won't get breast cancer. I am a case that is written up in the medical journals for the youngest person to have a hysterectomy but I wouldn't change a thing except for maybe the pain. The medication that I was put on after the first surgery was an awful medication called Danocrine. It has been removed from the market. It was supposed to dry up the blood the doctors doing the surgery couldn't get. I turned out to be allergic to it but the doctor gave me meds to cover up the side effects so the drug had time to work.

Never let it make you feel like it did me; that I wasn't a woman any more or that no man would ever want me. I am happily married and I have three wonderful and beautiful stepdaughters who are also my friends. If you have any questions don't be scared to ask me or your gynecologist.