Cancer Scare

Hey guys. For the past couple of years I have had terrible periods. Enough for 2 or 3 people having heavy periods combined. The cramps that come with it are terrible. Cancer runs rampant in my family, even the feminine kinds that most people in my family gets around their mid-20's. I am 25. I have cowardly been avoiding going to the doctor, on top of having no health insurance. Finally, I was over it today and went to the E.R.. They poked and prodded and ran all kinds of embarrassing tests that I otherwise wouldn't have minded too much if I weren't bleeding out through it all. Luckily after 5 hours, I learned that there is no sign of cancer, but I have a condition called Dysfunctional Menstural Bleeding. I am now on a hormone called Provera for 10 days and have an appointment with my Gyno Monday to set up a surgery where they will go in vaginally and scrape and burn the inside walls of my uterus. This is suppose to decrease the bleeding or cause me to never have a period again. Has anyone else been through this surgery? If so, how was your recovery? Your sex life after? Now, I have been through 2 c-sections. I have had my uterus on the outside of my body twice, stuffed back in, and zipped up. I always had dissolving stitches and glue on the incision, never staples, so my recoveries were a breeze. Yes, I was in pain, but that wouldn't stop me from sanitizing the whole house the day I'd come home from the hospital. I'm a little worried about what everything is going to be like post surgery. I feel kind of ignorant to all this. It's got me shook. I know a good bit after going through 2 pregnancies, but I can't help but wonder, numbly about. I'm happy to be cancer free (YAY!), but I just have questions I felt silly to ask my doc about or just didn't think of at the time. I am basically just wondering if anyone else has had this surgery and what all you went through if you're up to sharing. Today was a horrible experience and I just can't wait to get it over with. The doctor (being a male) said he couldn't imagine what I was going through (admittedly) and could tell it was affecting my quality of life, which it has and continues to do so. Thanks for reading!



(also anyone who has taken Provera or Medroxyprogesterone with any info would be great! Thanks again!) less

Ask them about a hormone or birth control if there's no underlying problems. The docs recommended the surgery and I asked if there were another non-evasive route such as birth control. They prescribed me 10 days of the Provera pill; the hormone part of Depro-Provera is how they explained it to me. less

I have had this surgery twice for endometriosis. The recovery was not too bad, there was some discharge from the healing uterus...that lasted about 7-10 days. After that I was better than before until the endometrial tissue went cattywamus again..but that is another story.

My surgeries were actually dual surgeries, they went in vaginally and performed the D&C and internal cauterization, then lapyroscip surgery was needed for the external growth of tissue on the uterus. The internal healed very fast, but the external was a bit slower due to the extent of the damage.

I was on Depro-provera (a shot) when it first came out. This did lessen the growth of tissue and made the endometriosis slow down for a brief time, but my condition was too advanced for it to work properly. A good friend of mine was on this and it worked very well for her, lightened her periods and no side effects.

I am so glad you are cancer free!! My hidden condition was ovarian cancer...and the treatment and radiation was awful!! Glad they caught it, though!! less