[Ally6181]

Hello ladies, here is some background info on me. I have never had any symptoms of endo,not one to be exact, however in June was rushed to hospital due to abdominal pain, they found 2 large cysts on each of my ovaries, obgyn did laproscopy at end of June and found I had stage 4 endo (it was all over ovaries, bowels, intestines, and behind uterus. She cleaned almost all out and removed cysts but couldnt get to the endo behind my uterus without opening me up. We couldnt open me up b/c I was getting married 3 weeks later. Well, got married went on honeymoon and landed back at doc. in Sept. with pain again, Large cyst on right ovary, did laparotomy cleaned out EVERYTHING this time and she noticed that I had "clubbing" of the finger things at the end of my tubes. Tubes were clear but finger things(sorry dont know what they are called) were shorter from endo. My fertility doc. said I need to do IVF because the finger things might not grab the egg and get it into tube. Ok, fine...well went in for bloodwork and found out i was pregnant from Sept. about 2 weeks before the surgery. Pregnancy turned out to be ectopic, but my question is if I had gotten pregnant on my own do I really need IVF? Could the ectopic been caused from the surgery (I was also put on Lupron for a month right after surgery) so could the mix of Lupron and surgery of caused my ectopic or isit likely that the endo damage did?

[Bri01]

I also have endo and am facing a hysterectomy in the next few months. I was told by a fertility specialist that because of the endo, and the scarring that it causes everywhere, that I would be at higher risk for an eptopic pregnancy if I got pregnant on my own, and that my best bet would be IVF.

[sneal66752]

Hi Alley, I did not have surgery but was diagnosed by my RE with Severe Endometriosis via vaginal US and HSG. My reproductive organs are actually tipped to the side becasue i have Endo all over my right ovary. I also have one on the left, but my right is like 4 times it's normal size. I was told IVF was the only safe way for me to conceive. My RE said that the surgery would cause way too much scarring which could reduce my chances of conceiving even more.

I'm actually going thru a cycle right now. I had my egg retreival on Saturday, and they said it was a little difficult but went well over all. They had a hard time getting to my eggs because of the Endo. I raised that concern to my RE a few weeks back. He said that they would just go thru the endo with the needle to get to my eggs. I'm scheduled for my embryo transfer 8am tomorrow. Hope this helps.

Shelley

[bonbon]

I'm 27 yrs old.
I have severe endo, diagnosed in 2006.
I never knew I had endo until after I got married.
I had 2 laparoscopies & 1 laparotomy done for endometriomas.
during my laparotomy I had half of my left tube & half of the left ovary removed.
I had an HSG test done & it showed that both tubes were blocked.
I've done 3 IVF cycles; with my first cycle I did get pregnant, but miscarried. My other 2 cycles were unsuccessful.
-2nd cycle we increased my medication & only got 1 egg, which was no good. I guess due to endo, it caused multiple cysts.
-3rd cycle; we did a really good medication dosage that my body could handle (got 6 eggs- which developed really good) I got a BFN beta pregnancy test. I"m not sure what happened, why it didn't work.

Since I've had 3 surgeries & half of my left ovary has been removed, my fsh (follicle stimulating hormone) level is a little elevated- around 11.5

Yesterday I had a 2nd HSG test done & it showed that my right tube is open. So I am hoping to try & get pregnant without doing IVF.

Sometimes with IVF it can help if you have tube problems, ect... It can be very expensive, for all 3 cycles it has cost around $30,000, insurance didn't cover it; Sometimes it doesn't work- & that can be quite disappointing, when you spend so much money.

With my Drs. they have told me that since I'm pretty young it should be easy to get pregnant; for me it's sort of sad, since IVF hasn't really worked out.

[lilcbru]

I'm in the same boat you are. I didn't have any symptoms of endo, but found out about it because we weren't getting pregnant. My RE recommends IVF (beginning my cycle in Feb.), due to the tubes probably not being able to "grab" the eggs. We decided to go ahead with the IVF, because we were afraid we would end up spending more trying other things (IUI, more expensive drugs) and still need the IVF in the end. I'm also concerened that the endo that was removed during my lap will just come back.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[wantabigbelly]

How do you feel about your doctor? It sounds like you don't trust him/her 100%. I had to change doc's before finding a doc. I really trusted....the other doc. left me with too many questions and not a clear path. My current doctor stressed for us to use protection before the surgery and also had me take a pregnancy test half an hour before the surgery. I think the fact that your doctor didn't seem to confirm you weren't pregnate before your surgery would make me a bit skeptical. I think I would seek a second opinion before going through w/IVF with your current doctor. Although I have heard that Endo. can cause ectopic pregnancy, I don't think they can rule out that there's a chance the surgery or meds could have had something to do with it. Good Luck!

[wntacambaby]

I'm in the same boat...6 yrs ago DH and I started ttc naturally and I wasn't noticing any ovulation happening on the OPK's. Finally made an appt and the RE did an ultrasound and told me I was loaded with endo and I needed a hysterectomy...I went for a 2nd and 3rd opinion and told the same thing that I would never have any kids and I needed a hysterectomy the endo was too far gone. I never had any symptoms whatsoever...I booked an appt with my RE I have now and while waiting for that appt I ended up in the ER with severe pain out of nowhere...he saw me in the ER and had me in for surgery 3 days later...He guaranteed me nothing but said he thought he could save my uterus and ovaries but he couldn't rule out advanced cancer until he got in there..and if I had that he would do a hysterectomy...I was freaking out all the way until they knocked me out...well I found a great doctor he saved everything however after trying multiple IUI's and IVF's with very poor response, my FSH is through the roof, and I have premature ovarian failure...Ive had 2 surgeries now for stage IV endo it was on my bowel, bladder, ovaries, abdominal wall and I have some adeno on my uterus wall.

I have tried all that I can but my endo destroyed my ovaries and egg supply I was the worse case he has ever seen. I'm 30 now and just began my first IVF cycle and will be using donor eggs. I did 3 months of depot lupron therapy prior to going on bcp for the cycle as my RE believe it will quiet the toxins of the endo so that implantation is more likely to occur...I'm also using baby aspirin as my RE feels that those with bad endo have clotting issues and bloodflow issues to the uterus and this is suppose to help.

There are options out there for those with severe endo....my only advice is if you know you have severe endo move as quick as you possibly can move...I say dont waste too much time ttc naturally with IUI's do IVF if you can.....I truly believe severe endo does more damage than what most RE's think it could ever do. Good Luck!