Post by cherry on Dec 22, 2009 10:44:53 GMT -5
So thanks to my gynae (and his patience with me as I lost faith after this didn't work out the first time) I will be spending my first pain free Christmas in years.
His treatment was to insert a mirena IUD during my last laparoscopy after he had removed the endo deposits and adhesions present. The next day, I was also started on a type of GnRH called Gonapeptyl to put my body into a relatively harsh but instrumental and temporary menopause.
The mirena is meant as a long term treatment for keeping my endo at bay until I decide to try for children or have the mirena renewed or removed. It typically stays active for 5 years and is meant to work locally on the womb and so minimise side effects suffered with the pill and similar drugs. The mirena often gets off to a troublesome start though, with a lot of people reporting spotting or disrupted cycles in the first few months. To help with the bedding in period of the mirena and also to maintain the clean slate I was given with the removal of my endo, my doctor favours putting his patients on Gonapeptyl, a GnRH known for it's relatively mild side-effects. GnRH treatments are quite harsh, as it plunges the body straight into menopausal mode, stopping ovulation, cycles, bleeding. This is very different to the body's gradual shutting down of reproductive operations when a woman goes into natural menopause, thoug I cannot compare it to the changes that a woman goes through when she has her ovaries removed, which would also bring about an instant and forced menopause. It is used for some breast cancers and prostate cancers, which should indicate how totally this treatment should work. In a newly cleaned out pelvis it can hold off the often-inevitable regrowth of endo (some doctors use this treatment in patients with mild endo without removing endo deposits, which in my case proved to be a very pointless course of action when my idiotic first gynae tried it), though very many women report the side effects to be quite obvious and sometimes intolerable and outweighing the benefits. It is not used for more than 6 months at a time but some cases, like Cass, are taking tentative steps in staying on GnRH for as long as possible due to the destructive and life wrecking possibilities if endo were to re-occur.
So I had my mirena inserted during my op in May, and was on Gonapeptyl GnRH for 3 injections along with tibolone HRT to minimise the harsh side effects. However I found I spotted constantly and having been on GnRH twice before, I recognised that it wasn't working due to the constant bleeding and pain and I couldn't stand the weight loss and brain fog that I suffer with this treatment. My doctor admitted that it didn't seem to be working out and didn't oppose when I decided to stop the injections. My spotting stopped and I eventually started to feel a lessening of the severe pain I had suffered since I had the laparoscopy. I feel pain in line with my sister's cycle, which is a dull reminder of the agony I was in these last 6 months, but that it about the most. I'm saving a fortune on sanitary products and single use heating pads
So I hope if anyone is offered this course of treatment , that they will go with it or consider it very seriously. I tolerated the GnRH very badly but others may find it easily tolerable as compared to endo pain, or just react much better than I did. I hope this can be a decisive course of action for some as I can now see through most days pain free, and the days I'm in pain are nowhere the pain levels that caused me to vomit or faint or overdose on painkillers like before. So at worst I can pop a few pills a few days a month and my body feels like it's on holiday. Seriously I was gobbling pills all month before, in pain most days, miserable beyond words more often than not. It wasn't a life and what's frustrating was that I thought 'but it's only endo' so how did it take over so completely?!
My doctor tried this with me 2 years ago, when he first operated on me and found the mess that my first gynaecologist had left. That first time I found the mirena was causing me discomfort after a horribly painful insertion procedure and that I was also still suffering endo pain, so I had the mirena removed, and though I was on a constant level for a while, the pain starting peaking again and my health took a bit of a nosedive, so I agreed before this second operation that I would try this treatment again as I felt so so bad and thought 'anything is better than this' I'm really glad I tried this again, cos my gynae is a brilliant surgeon and doctor and compassionate to boot. He never gave up on me despite my reluctance to do as he said, so I thank him from the bottom of my heart. Mr Gazvani at Liverpool Women's Hospital. He's an infertility specialist as well as an endo specialist so if I'm unfortunate enough to need treatment I will be so glad to have him around. Keep the faith ladies
His treatment was to insert a mirena IUD during my last laparoscopy after he had removed the endo deposits and adhesions present. The next day, I was also started on a type of GnRH called Gonapeptyl to put my body into a relatively harsh but instrumental and temporary menopause.
The mirena is meant as a long term treatment for keeping my endo at bay until I decide to try for children or have the mirena renewed or removed. It typically stays active for 5 years and is meant to work locally on the womb and so minimise side effects suffered with the pill and similar drugs. The mirena often gets off to a troublesome start though, with a lot of people reporting spotting or disrupted cycles in the first few months. To help with the bedding in period of the mirena and also to maintain the clean slate I was given with the removal of my endo, my doctor favours putting his patients on Gonapeptyl, a GnRH known for it's relatively mild side-effects. GnRH treatments are quite harsh, as it plunges the body straight into menopausal mode, stopping ovulation, cycles, bleeding. This is very different to the body's gradual shutting down of reproductive operations when a woman goes into natural menopause, thoug I cannot compare it to the changes that a woman goes through when she has her ovaries removed, which would also bring about an instant and forced menopause. It is used for some breast cancers and prostate cancers, which should indicate how totally this treatment should work. In a newly cleaned out pelvis it can hold off the often-inevitable regrowth of endo (some doctors use this treatment in patients with mild endo without removing endo deposits, which in my case proved to be a very pointless course of action when my idiotic first gynae tried it), though very many women report the side effects to be quite obvious and sometimes intolerable and outweighing the benefits. It is not used for more than 6 months at a time but some cases, like Cass, are taking tentative steps in staying on GnRH for as long as possible due to the destructive and life wrecking possibilities if endo were to re-occur.
So I had my mirena inserted during my op in May, and was on Gonapeptyl GnRH for 3 injections along with tibolone HRT to minimise the harsh side effects. However I found I spotted constantly and having been on GnRH twice before, I recognised that it wasn't working due to the constant bleeding and pain and I couldn't stand the weight loss and brain fog that I suffer with this treatment. My doctor admitted that it didn't seem to be working out and didn't oppose when I decided to stop the injections. My spotting stopped and I eventually started to feel a lessening of the severe pain I had suffered since I had the laparoscopy. I feel pain in line with my sister's cycle, which is a dull reminder of the agony I was in these last 6 months, but that it about the most. I'm saving a fortune on sanitary products and single use heating pads
So I hope if anyone is offered this course of treatment , that they will go with it or consider it very seriously. I tolerated the GnRH very badly but others may find it easily tolerable as compared to endo pain, or just react much better than I did. I hope this can be a decisive course of action for some as I can now see through most days pain free, and the days I'm in pain are nowhere the pain levels that caused me to vomit or faint or overdose on painkillers like before. So at worst I can pop a few pills a few days a month and my body feels like it's on holiday. Seriously I was gobbling pills all month before, in pain most days, miserable beyond words more often than not. It wasn't a life and what's frustrating was that I thought 'but it's only endo' so how did it take over so completely?!
My doctor tried this with me 2 years ago, when he first operated on me and found the mess that my first gynaecologist had left. That first time I found the mirena was causing me discomfort after a horribly painful insertion procedure and that I was also still suffering endo pain, so I had the mirena removed, and though I was on a constant level for a while, the pain starting peaking again and my health took a bit of a nosedive, so I agreed before this second operation that I would try this treatment again as I felt so so bad and thought 'anything is better than this' I'm really glad I tried this again, cos my gynae is a brilliant surgeon and doctor and compassionate to boot. He never gave up on me despite my reluctance to do as he said, so I thank him from the bottom of my heart. Mr Gazvani at Liverpool Women's Hospital. He's an infertility specialist as well as an endo specialist so if I'm unfortunate enough to need treatment I will be so glad to have him around. Keep the faith ladies