Wait...IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT.

[LtRainnAron]

Soooo, for about two years now I've been having severe abdominal pains, and by severe I mean "wake-you-up-out-of-a-dead-sleep" painful. The past year I've had problems with my period being irregular as hell (I had 8 periods in 7 weeks) and cramps so bad that I'm pretty sure a knifing would be less painful.

I finally went to my doctor and he tells me that I -might- have a rare condition (rare apparently for grown women, even rarer for someone my age) where your uterus grows...apparently it just grows around your other organs that happen to be in the general vicinity.

(The look of horror upon my male friends faces when they inquired as to how the doctor appointment went was priceless, though.)

I don't remember what the condition was called, so I'm kind of stumped as far as researching it goes. I know that it would explain a lot, if that's what the problem is. I did however have an abdominal/intestinal X-ray last year, and I was wondering if this problem would have shown up on it.

Does anyone have any information on this by any chance?

[Doubler]

I am not a doctor. My wife had the same exact symptoms, period all month, gone for 2 days and then back again for a month. She went in for testing, ultrasound, and they found numerous growths from her uterus and wrapping around other internals. The only solution at the time was a Hysterectomy. That solved the problem. This was in 1986.

[LtRainnAron]

I am not a doctor. My wife had the same exact symptoms, period all month, gone for 2 days and then back again for a month. She went in for testing, ultrasound, and they found numerous growths from her uterus and wrapping around other internals. The only solution at the time was a Hysterectomy. That solved the problem. This was in 1986.

Do you by any chance remember the medical term for it? Since its apparently a rare condition, I doubt they have many other options for treatment, although I don't really care, to be honest. Having kids wasn't in my game plan for life, anyway.

I'm just worried they're going to test it and sway that's not the problem, because I've had a problem with doctors doing one or two tests, not getting any information, and then just sending me on my way like its not a big deal. :| It's not like I -want- something like this, more that I just want to know what's going on.

[pickens_46929]

There are a variety of conditions like this but you're likely talking about Endometriosis which is more common that your doctor led you to believe.

[LtRainnAron]

There are a variety of conditions like this but you're likely talking about Endometriosis which is more common that your doctor led you to believe.

I was on another forum and asked, and found it on Google Health. Yeah, it's Endometriosis.

Now I'm kind of worried, though. The treatments for it are the same thing I'm doing now, (aside from a hysto) so I have a feeling I'm going to have to fight with my doctor on this.

The more I research it, the more it seems likely. I do hope they can finally hit on something. I've been ested for thyroid problems, galbladder problems, stomach ulcers, and some sort of bowl inflammation thing, and whenever they can't find something they just send me on my way like, "Oh well, that wasn't it so we just don't know."

[Doubler]

I believe Pickens nailed it. After the ultrasound at the Mecca of Naval Medicine (Bethesda), her doctor, a young LT, said he didn't see anything wrong, that it was all emotional and in her head that nothing was wrong that a little Valium wouldn't solve. I asked about all the growths the tech had seen and he stated that he had the medical degree not the tech. Really pissed me off so I made an appointment for her at the Air Force Hospital, Malcolm Grow with a Female Major. She takes one look at the Ultrasound results and calls the Doctor at Bethesda, asks if he is trying to kill this woman and schedules Trish for surgery the next day. Moral of the story: Get a second opinion.

[Tigerman]

I just love it when the doctors decide theres nothing wrong with people just because they cant figure out what it is..

[Sas]

I was on another forum and asked, and found it on Google Health. Yeah, it's Endometriosis.

Now I'm kind of worried, though. The treatments for it are the same thing I'm doing now, (aside from a hysto) so I have a feeling I'm going to have to fight with my doctor on this.

Nearly every woman in my family on my mother's side has it actually (with me and my mother as exceptions I believe, I've never had any symptoms...). It's fairly common, think about 10% of women have it.

Basically it has meant fertility problems - lots of childless women in my family and also ones that have spent ages on IVF. My sister had heaps of similar problems like you but I think it is under control now with the pill (she had to try a few different types) where she does not take the placebo tablets and strong pain killers for when she does get her period, seems to be more management than a cure. She was told if she plans to have kids to do it asap. I know she had an ultrasound and possibly a biopsy for diagnosis (after going through some of the tests you have described), a lot of hassle.

Hope things work out!

[TSandM]

Just to speak up for the doctors . . . endometriosis is a condition that really can't be diagnosed without diagnostic surgery. And chronic pelvic pain is common, and not everyone who has it has endometriosis. I had a hysterectomy at age 23 for severe cramps (dysmenorrhea) for which they could find no cause and which responded to no medications other than things that sedated me enough to be unable to work. Nobody knew what the problem was, but a hysterectomy solved it forever, which was fine with me.

We try really hard to find the reasons for people's pain -- no doctor wants to see a patient suffering. But some pain is simply not due to any anatomic or pathologic abnormality we can detect, despite repeated testing and imaging studies. We get frustrated, too; we want to help, but can't find anything to do. And lurking always in the backs of our minds are the people who use undefinable pain as a method of getting narcotic pain medications (and people do this, and often sell those meds on the stress for far more than the appointment cost them).

Doctors in general aren't lazy, slipshod, or uncaring. But the myriad of ills of humankind extend beyond the limits of what we know and what we can do sometimes.

[Sas]

And lurking always in the backs of our minds are the people who use undefinable pain as a method of getting narcotic pain medications (and people do this, and often sell those meds on the stress for far more than the appointment cost them).

From my experience doctors often don't take pain levels seriously at all, perhaps this is why, they just presume people want narcotics or attention? I went in to hospital because of abdominal pain once. I was basically told (after blood + pregnancy tests) that I was exaggerating as I could walk and they couldn't see anything wrong with me and sent home. Being the stubborn sort I waited a few hours and went back and proved them wrong with a burst appendix.

My brother got given paracetamol for a bad headache once, which turned out to be a stroke.

And of course it took forever for my sister to have her problems sorted out. Etc (I could go on but I won't )

Are there that many hypochondriacs/drug users around that doctors are really wary of people complaining about pain?