Am I too young?

[Caris1994]

Hello I'm Caris,

I was wondering if any of you ladies know the answer to a question I'm struggling to get an answer for?

I am 20 years old and I have severe endometriosis. My consultant told me to start trying for children as soon as possible. This really scared me as from a young age I knew I wanted to be a mother.

I feel as though I am in a awkward situation as I do not a have a partner nor do I wish for one ( obviously I will be needing a doner). Even if things were different I would be unable to conceive naturally as the endometriosis makes intercourse too painful .

Am I too young too get IUI/IVF at a private fertility clinic?

Thank you for any help!

[Lauren83]

Hello

I too have severe stage 4 endo, I have had two cycles of ivf so far, I'm 30 and have been trying for 7 years

Firstly your age.. Some pcts won't fund for assisted conception if you are under a certain age, I think it varies, heard its 24 in some areas, best thing to do is contact your local pct (think they go by a different name these days) and ask for the criteria, you would need to show you had been trying to get pregnant for so many years before they refer you, think the usual is 12 months (sometimes 6 months if you have known issues) then they would refer you for basic tests and take it from there, as you have no partner that's not an option at the moment

Best thing I can suggest you do is get a couple of blood tests done, an FSH and AMH, FSH your GP should do, AMH you will probably have to pay private (about £45) as that's not routinely offered and only seems to be ivf clinics that do it, both those will give you an idea if you have healthy eggs and how many you have, this should help you decide if times on your side, if the results are bad you could possibly look at egg freezing til you are ready in a few years

You talk about the pain, if you had ivf they would most probably do a laparoscopy and remove everything beforehand so nothing was affecting your chances, I had all mine and my tubes removed before I could go for ivf, there's also treatments like Prostap (chemical menopause injection) that can halt the spread of it, that's sometimes used before ivf to get endo under control

What tests/treatments have you had so far?


Lauren xx

[Caris1994]

Thanks for the info.
I've not yet had any tests as I've only started wondering about my options but I've had 3 laparoscopys since I was 15 but only one of which was to diagnose the problem.

I've seen about 3 consultants who have each told me different things which is annoying!

Did you have your tubes removed because of the endo if you don't mindless asking?

X

[Lauren83]

What area are you in? I have a great endo specialist who also heads the fertility units at the hospital so all surgery he does he always does everything to preserve my fertility, for eg when I had cyst removal he knew I had a low egg reserve so he skinned the cyst from the inside so as not to damage any more healthy tissue

I had my tubes removed as I developed hydrosalpinx, that's a blocked tube with fluid in that can leak into your womb lower your chances of ivf sucess, a blocked tube wouldn't be so much of an issue but the hydro is, it can be quite common with endo, I had a 15 cyst on one ovary that was weighing everything down so think that's how it got twisted and filled with fluid

Have you had a recent ultrasound? They can usually see hydro and cysts from that, a HSG can check your tubes are open and I had a MRI to check it hasn't spread anywhere but my pelvis

Are you not on any pain meds to help? And was your endo lasered or did it have excision?

Lauren x

[Caris1994]

Dorset, wow that specialist seems great!.
Ouch that sounds painful :(
I had an ultrasound years ago while they were trying to diagnose the endo.
I also had an MRI as the endo is on my bowel but they were looking to see if it had gone inside it.
Only codeine which knocks the edge off but that's all.
I had it lasered off. What about you? What pain meds are you on? X

[Lauren83]

Im in Manchester its a shame you arent nearer to see this guy. I have only heard bad things about laser I was hoping you wasn't gonna say that, a lot of people will only offer Laser but you need excision, removes all of it and gets deeper, from what I have read laser means it comes back quicker, I had extensive excision from pelvis, bladder, pouch of douglas, bowel, my ureters resected, cysts drained, tubes removed and everything untangled, first op was 1.45 min, second was 6 hours and he got every last bit of it, I had Prostap injections between my surgeries

Do you feel you need better pain meds, codeine didn't work for me, plus if you have bowel endo it can bung you up a bit, I have been on various things but the combo I use at mo is

Tramadol
Oramorph (liquid morphine)
Naproxen
Butrans patch (morphine patch)!

You shouldn't be living with the pain if its affecting you like that, find something better that works, its trial and error though you might need to try a few xx

[Caris1994]

Oh no really? I heard lasers can damage but that's a about it. I haven't been given much information about it so I need to do my research!.

Wow excision sounds amazing I must ask my consultant about this.
I used to be on oramorph but the smallest amount would make me sick although it did help, bit of a catch 22 really!
I've heard about tramadol, looks like I'll be making another doctors appointment see what they can offer xx

[Lauren83]

You have the right to request where you want your treatment, so do some research and find a surgeon in your area who does excision.

Tramadol has been amazing for me, I get no side effects even on 8 a day, a lot do though so its not for everyone, I get terrible headaches from oramorph that's why I went on the patches, it gives you a steady low dose instead, wear the patch for a week xx