Does your wife, daughter, sister, girlfriend, etc... have bad periods? Read the following, and I hope it helps someone out there. If just one of you guys catches this early for the woman in your life...
Amazingly enough, having painful periods is not "normal". Common, yes, but normal, no. Like heart disease, it is common thing, but it is not the way her body is supposed to work. The pain is a sign that something is wrong. In my wife's case, and many other women's, it is the sign of a disease called endometriosis.
Some scary facts to lay the groundwork:
- The average time between the onset of symptoms and the time a girl or women first tells her doctor about them is about 4 years or so
- The average time between the time a women first tells a Dr about her symptoms and she finally gets diagnosed correctly is 4 to 5 years
- So, between the first onset of symptoms and the first correct diagnosis averages 9 years. That's just the average.
- It's very underdiagnosed. Many women suffer from it for years and never get diagnosed. It's a lot more common than you think...
And it gets worse...
- the average women sees at least 4 doctors before one of them gets the diagnosis right
- you'd think that this being a disease related to the female organs, the OB/GYNs would be all over it. The fact is, all they tend to know about is delivering babies and doing pap smears. As a group they are completely ignorant about endometriosis.
- from a survey of 4,000 women with endo, 55% reported that their doctors had either taken their symptoms "not seriously at all" or "not very seriously".
- 61% of the women were told by their doctors that "nothing is wrong"
- of those told that nothing was wrong, 69% said it was their gynecologist that had told them this!
- In other words, your wife/gf/etc... might have told her regular ob/gyn about these symptoms, and the odds are greater than 50/50 that her Dr just ignored it all, told her she was fine, and that everything is normal!
So, what's the sympotms?
- #1 symptom is pelvic pain, especially during their periods. Pelvic pain at other times of the month (such as during ovulation) is also quite common.
Does her period knock her out for a few days, leaving her on the couch on a heating pad? Prime candidate right there.
- fatigue and exhaustion is reported by most
- diarrhea, painful bowel movements, and other intestinal upsets during their periods is another big sign, over 75% of women with endo have a problem with this. Abdominal bloating too. Being diagnosed with Irritible Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common prelude to finding out they have endo.
- pain during or after sex is another common symptom
- infertility. Endo is a very common cause of this
- there is a very strong link between allergies and endo, the majority of endo patients seem to have allergies of some sort
My wife's story:
- real bad, painful periods most of her life, from late teens onward. Leaves her on the couch for a few days hugging the ole heating pad.
- pain (usually a burning sensation) during and after sex from her early-mid 20's onward
- occasional bouts of bad diarrhea mixed with constipation from her mid 20's onward
- intestinal problems get worse as she gets older. Starts seeing a gastroenterologist around 1994. He finds nothing wrong
- has to quit her job in 1997 at age 29 due to a prolonged bout with the intestinal problems. Lasts a good 6 months or so before she gets better. More gastro visits and a colonoscopy turn up nothing. She looks perfect inside.
- next few years the intestinal problems come and go. During this time the gastros diagnose her with IBS, which means "we don't know what the hell is wrong with you". They give some pills that don't help, and diet advice that is worthless. "if it bothers you when you eat it, don't eat it again." They do say to go to a gynecologist to make sure the problems aren't related to any female parts
- several visits to multiple ob/gyns turn up nothing. She is accused of being anorexic (since she is so skinny due to the intestinal problems, at some times food is coming out the other end within half an hour of her eating it). She is told we need to use KY to stop the burning sensation during sex, that painful periods are normal (so many women have them) and basically that she looks just great on the inside. She is told all this by both male and female doctors.
- gets to the point where sometimes she can hardly walk due to the pain. Spends more of her life on the couch than not.
- gets a referral to an infertility specialist since we've been wondering why she's never gotten pregnant
- See him in late 2001. He's got her diagnosed within 10 minutes of walking in the door, because her symptoms are so damn obvious to a Dr that actually knows something.
- All those years wasted and those ignorant mother ****in doctors...
My advice: if you have a woman in your life with some of the above symptoms, get her to the Dr. This kind of pain is pure hell, and it gets worse as time goes by. You don't want to let her go untreated any longer! Don't let her go to her regular old ob/gyn. They are amazingly ignorant of this. Call around and ask if the Dr has experience with endometriosis before you let her go there. Your best bet may be a fertility specialist, such as a reprodutive endocrinologist. Endo is such a common cause of infertility that they tend to be more familiar with endo than other Drs. You might get a referral from the Endometriosis Association http://www.endometriosisassn.org/endo.html There are things that can be done, anyone that wants to know more just let me know. My wife and I have learned a lot of good stuff, and help is out there.
John Estill
Amazingly enough, having painful periods is not "normal". Common, yes, but normal, no. Like heart disease, it is common thing, but it is not the way her body is supposed to work. The pain is a sign that something is wrong. In my wife's case, and many other women's, it is the sign of a disease called endometriosis.
Some scary facts to lay the groundwork:
- The average time between the onset of symptoms and the time a girl or women first tells her doctor about them is about 4 years or so
- The average time between the time a women first tells a Dr about her symptoms and she finally gets diagnosed correctly is 4 to 5 years
- So, between the first onset of symptoms and the first correct diagnosis averages 9 years. That's just the average.
- It's very underdiagnosed. Many women suffer from it for years and never get diagnosed. It's a lot more common than you think...
And it gets worse...
- the average women sees at least 4 doctors before one of them gets the diagnosis right
- you'd think that this being a disease related to the female organs, the OB/GYNs would be all over it. The fact is, all they tend to know about is delivering babies and doing pap smears. As a group they are completely ignorant about endometriosis.
- from a survey of 4,000 women with endo, 55% reported that their doctors had either taken their symptoms "not seriously at all" or "not very seriously".
- 61% of the women were told by their doctors that "nothing is wrong"
- of those told that nothing was wrong, 69% said it was their gynecologist that had told them this!
- In other words, your wife/gf/etc... might have told her regular ob/gyn about these symptoms, and the odds are greater than 50/50 that her Dr just ignored it all, told her she was fine, and that everything is normal!
So, what's the sympotms?
- #1 symptom is pelvic pain, especially during their periods. Pelvic pain at other times of the month (such as during ovulation) is also quite common.
Does her period knock her out for a few days, leaving her on the couch on a heating pad? Prime candidate right there.
- fatigue and exhaustion is reported by most
- diarrhea, painful bowel movements, and other intestinal upsets during their periods is another big sign, over 75% of women with endo have a problem with this. Abdominal bloating too. Being diagnosed with Irritible Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common prelude to finding out they have endo.
- pain during or after sex is another common symptom
- infertility. Endo is a very common cause of this
- there is a very strong link between allergies and endo, the majority of endo patients seem to have allergies of some sort
My wife's story:
- real bad, painful periods most of her life, from late teens onward. Leaves her on the couch for a few days hugging the ole heating pad.
- pain (usually a burning sensation) during and after sex from her early-mid 20's onward
- occasional bouts of bad diarrhea mixed with constipation from her mid 20's onward
- intestinal problems get worse as she gets older. Starts seeing a gastroenterologist around 1994. He finds nothing wrong
- has to quit her job in 1997 at age 29 due to a prolonged bout with the intestinal problems. Lasts a good 6 months or so before she gets better. More gastro visits and a colonoscopy turn up nothing. She looks perfect inside.
- next few years the intestinal problems come and go. During this time the gastros diagnose her with IBS, which means "we don't know what the hell is wrong with you". They give some pills that don't help, and diet advice that is worthless. "if it bothers you when you eat it, don't eat it again." They do say to go to a gynecologist to make sure the problems aren't related to any female parts
- several visits to multiple ob/gyns turn up nothing. She is accused of being anorexic (since she is so skinny due to the intestinal problems, at some times food is coming out the other end within half an hour of her eating it). She is told we need to use KY to stop the burning sensation during sex, that painful periods are normal (so many women have them) and basically that she looks just great on the inside. She is told all this by both male and female doctors.
- gets to the point where sometimes she can hardly walk due to the pain. Spends more of her life on the couch than not.
- gets a referral to an infertility specialist since we've been wondering why she's never gotten pregnant
- See him in late 2001. He's got her diagnosed within 10 minutes of walking in the door, because her symptoms are so damn obvious to a Dr that actually knows something.
- All those years wasted and those ignorant mother ****in doctors...
My advice: if you have a woman in your life with some of the above symptoms, get her to the Dr. This kind of pain is pure hell, and it gets worse as time goes by. You don't want to let her go untreated any longer! Don't let her go to her regular old ob/gyn. They are amazingly ignorant of this. Call around and ask if the Dr has experience with endometriosis before you let her go there. Your best bet may be a fertility specialist, such as a reprodutive endocrinologist. Endo is such a common cause of infertility that they tend to be more familiar with endo than other Drs. You might get a referral from the Endometriosis Association http://www.endometriosisassn.org/endo.html There are things that can be done, anyone that wants to know more just let me know. My wife and I have learned a lot of good stuff, and help is out there.
John Estill
This is not exactly the web site where I want to see crap like this posted. Tell us about the GN or somethin man!
