Hi sweetie, its hard to say this one could be very light or very painful because of the op and the body needs to let it all out you know what i mean. If you are not going on any treatment then im afraid it will come back even on treatment it will always come back..... sorry sweetie xoxox

If it comes back/when it comes back should I expect it to be worse? And roughly how long will it take to come back (do most women have it back in 3 months 6 months a year?).. I know you can't answer these with 100% certainty but any rough ideas?

Atleast I have all you wonderful women as support! This place does wonders for my sanity!!

Thanks hun, you've been such an amazing support to me! xoxo

From I've read, usually if the endo is excised, ( like you mentioned ) it takes much longer for it to grow back. Getting every single endo cell is practically impossible. There can be many endo cells that cannot even be seen microscopically. If I had to make an educated guess I would say a year but that's just a guess and as you know, every woman is different.
As far as going "cold turkey" with the birth control, GOOD FOR YOU!!! I have avoided this type of treatment until recently. Last Thursday I had Mirena placed. I figure it's the lesser evil and have heard it can do wonders for pain, which is what it's being used for. It hasn't helped any yet but it can take a while before it kicks in. You may experience "withdrawl" from the discontinued use of the hormones. Maybe some light mood swings and headaches but nothing too bothersome. Taking Ester-C helps alot and magnesium. B-complex would also be beneficial for stress that your body goes through as it's adjusting and leveling out.
Back to surgery, there is something to be said about laser surgery, and it's not good. When I was Dx last May through lap., I truly believe it made my endo much worse. I have more pain than I ever had before. It's almost like the endo acted like cancer, once you mess with it, ( improperly ) it can revolt against you and reek havoc. It's like there's a war going on inside my body! LOL! You know the saying " Don't poke the bear"? Well that gyno did and now I'm left with a battle on my hands!

Anyways, hope you feel better soon!

Stay Gold!!

How long was it untill your endo came back or should I say showed its face/reaked havoc?

I've been in ALOT of pain today...Just like I never had surgery... If/when it comes back and he goes in im refusing laser surgery again.. I want it cut out all of it! No more agrivating!

I havnt been on any type of contraception for a good year.. my body doesnt take it well!

I hope I can sort this out eventually - I've got a disease now that I know is going to cause me some hell!

Hope your well and shall be interested to hear your response!

I took a look at your profile. About THREE YEARS on Lupron?!?!? Holy crap woman! It must have worked for you to be on it that long! I can't believe your doctor allowed you to be on it for that amount of time! And look! You now have osteoporosis! That just blows me away!

Anyway, as far as when my endo started back up again... I don't feel as though it ever went away. Right after surgery, I of course had healing pain but my left ovary felt as though it was going to "pop out". I expressed this to my gyno (at the time) and she kept telling me that I was ovulating seeing how she didn't even remove endo from that side. Well I knew this wasn't the case and since she wouldn't listen to me, I got a 2nd opinion. My pain did get better right after my lap. but it has progressively gotten worse since then. My left side is constantly in pain from the bottom of my left hip up to my ribs. Sometimes my waste area feels like it's going to go into a "charlie horse" and that ovary still feels like it's going to "pop out". The gyno I'm seeing right now ( just started seeing him ) has revealed to me ( upon his 1st physical exam on me ) that it's a good chance I have adenomyosis ( endo inside the uterus ) and he could see endo on my cervix. What gets me about this is about 2 months earlier, I had a physical exam from my 3rd gyno and he said nothing of this. This amazes me! Now we both know that endo doesn't USUALLY grow that fast! That gyno just doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to endo and was really quick to Dx me with IC. (Interstitial cystitis ) My gyno now in NOT convinced of this because none of it adds up. What this tells me is from the beginning I had WAY more endo and the 1st gyno wasn't qualified to.... well, do anything to me!

Basically what I'm saying is that I'm starting over so I can't say when the endo "came back" because it was never properly taken care of in the first place! ( sorry for the rant ) Sorry I had to take you through all of that to get nothing! :)

How long have you been with this doctor? Are you thinking of seeing someone different? Or perhaps a doctor in a different specialty? Do you feel maybe there could be something else going on? I know my doctor feels this way because there can't be this much pain for nothing. What is your pain like? Is it alot of the same as what you had before your surgery or is it different?

Look forward to your answers.

I didnt think Lupron and Depo provera were the same thing? =S Am I wrong? It worked for about a year.. I had breakthrough bleeding when I started and after a year of it being good I had breakthrough bleeding again...I had what I guess was normal period pain each month without the period and I put up with it.. some months were worse than others, but the osteoporosis is what made me come off provera.

The gyno I am with now is my 2nd gyno and I think ill give it 3-6 months and if he doesnt help me I'll ask for another opinion.
The pain I experienced today was horrible.. I was in tears and so nausiated I honestly thought I was going to vomit. Im interested to see my first period but to me it's as though I never had surgery..
Physical exams are painful for me.. Im in pain for a day or two afterwards and have to take strong painkillers...He knows all this - he sort of 'forgets' what I tell him I think.

He has been a godsend in that he did the lap/sugery...but as I said 3-6 months and no change I'm getting another opinion I dont care if I go through all the gyno's in the area!

Good for you! Stay strong and don't give up, you're totally worth it!

Yes, Provera and Lupron are totally different things. Provera is a birth control, usually given as an injection that lasts 3 months. Lupron put your body into medical menopause and is alos given as an injection. But you know all of this, I guess I'm putting it out there for others in case they are confused.

I know what you mean about physical exams! I was told by my physical therapist that OB/GYNs are only taught in school to "get everything out of the way", they are not taught how to "handle" a patient who experiences extreme pain. They are not "trying" to hurt us, they just have a job to do, they need to see in there. A PT only needs to feel in there, that is how they are trained so they are taught to be very gentle.

I'm so sorry for all the pain you are going through and I'm really beginning to feel this isn't normal. I think it would be in your best interest to call you doctor and explain that this pain is to way over the top to be "normal". I would worry about infection or something at this point.

Good Luck and Stay Gold!!

Let us know what comes of you with your pain! :)

*HUGS*

I agree with other commenters that endo never completely goes away. As for excision vs. laser there are two sides to that story. Laser is more conservative and can be used very successfully on lower stage endo. Excision is often used for higher stage but, BUT and this is a big one, it also leads to far greater chances for adhesions and scar tissue because you are leaving an oozing wound (from the excision site) in the pelvic cavity which acts like a magnet (practially) for bowel or other adjacent structures to adhere to while it heals. So beware. I am having surgery and my surgeon, who is an endo specialist, does not do excision except in certain cases for this reason. So possibly your pain is from adhesions and not newly developing (or redeveloping) endo.

That being said, everyone heals differently. Some people are genetically predispositioned to lay down more scar tissue and more extensive areas of it. You just don't know until it's time for your body to heal from something major. I would say that if you pain is as bad as you've described, I would NOT wait another cycle to have it investigated.

I know this is discouraging since you are relatively recently post-surgical but you should not be in this kind of pain and you should have it looked into whether via CT scan, MRI, ultrasound, etc. Don't just hope that it will go away.

I hope you get to the bottom of it and that you can be as pain free as possible in the very near future. Good luck!!

To SSWarning and anyone else: doesn't matter how many doctors you need to see, make sure they do whatever tests are necessary to determine what's going on. MRI, CT, ultrasound, etc. Be super persistent and ASK for these tests. Physical exams, though sometimes useful, are like navigating in a pitch black room trying to find your lipstick on the floor! For instance if your doctor suspects adenomyosis, get a hysteroscopy done. Do whatever it takes to get answers. I know this can be easier said than done but we have to advocate strongly for ourselves. If I was in that kind of pain, (like you both have described) I think I would plant myself in an ER and refuse to leave until a specialist had done a full workup and consult on me. I simply can't imagine going day after day in that kind of pain, taking pain killers, etc. It has to be awful.

I have been told, and I DO believe this, that each of us has different pain sensitivities too. What causes one person agony might just be a nagging bother to someone else. Unfortunately, I think that not only is this true, but that also our body gets into a pain feedback loop that it can't snap out of. Sort of like getting oversensitized and staying that way. This can be a vicious cycle and one that's hard to break without proper treatment and evaluation by a pain mgmt specialist (in conjuction with the endo treatment).

Good luck and I hope for pain free days for you all VERY soon. Advocate, push, be a pain in the ass, whatever you need to do to get resolution!!

God Bless!

I agree with the others, often you may think endo has come back or is worse, but what you are experiencing is adhesions or scar tissue form surgeries (which react like endo and cause the same if not more pain.
My endo came back every time, but I have avoided hormonal treatments (BC) sine trying to get pregnant and to be honest, I realize now it never really helped.

You could try alternative therapies (massage, yoga, acupuncture, acupressure, etc.). It might relieve a lot of the problems in some way.

I hope you heal or have some relief!!!

Thanks for all your responses and I am honestly thinking very seriously of calling my doctor.. I have an appointment with him at the end of the month as well for another post op review.

He apparantly lasered more than he cut... maybe he cut the more deeper endo parts? Im unsure.
Im trying to use the endo diet that Ruth86 sent me as of this week and cutting out things that might aggrivate it or lessening it. Also Liz told me that rasberry leaf tea helps so I've purchased some of that as well.

I'll let you know what comes of it all when I get some answers, thanks all for your time
xoxox

My endo was never gone...my first Lap revealed a large inactive mass of endo behind my uterus...and tiny specks of active endo on my right ureter. My second lap showed more specks of active endo now on my left ureter and urethra. My first period after my friend Lap....actually I had been on Lupron and my period never came back on it's own. I felt for 4 months everyday like my period was about to start...and I ended up having to take 5 days of norethidone to kick start it. My first period after my second lap was the week after....and it was pretty painful but fairly light. When I went for my 6 week checkup with my Dr I went on the Mini pill for 3 months....i ended up having to stop taking it cuz while the first three months were great...the 4th month seemed to bring on all the combined pain that I didn't have the first three months!! So now I do nothing. Just have to live with it.
I was actually just diagnosed three weeks ago with Fibromyalgia.