My normal is different

I had always heard women get cramps when they menstruate. And I knew women who had to take prescription medications or take sick days at work because of cramps. My cramps weren’t that bad. Sure I would hope my bad days would hit during the weekend. Sure I was taking lots of Ibuprofen. But I didn’t think to bring it up with a doctor because I didn’t think it was that unusual. It was just normal for me. I didn’t realize it might not be normal for everyone. And no doctor ever asked me how bad my cramps were.

Well, no doctor until we went to a fertility specialist. And by then I was starting to suspect a few things on my own. After getting my history at our first appointment, including how painful my cramps were, the doctor told me he could pretty much guarantee I had endometriosis.

The uterus is lined with endometrial tissue. It’s the tissue that grows and swells each month to make a nice comforting spot for a blastocyst (the ball of cells that grows to be an embryo after implantation) to land and implant, but bleeds if no blastocyst touches down.

Endometriosis is when endometrial tissue is growing where it’s not supposed to, i.e., anywhere but the inside of the uterus. So that means it can be on the outer side of the uterus, around the fallopian tubes, around the ovaries, on the intestines – anywhere inside the abdominal cavity. Just because it isn’t in the uterus doesn’t mean it knows that. So every month leading up to ovulation, that tissue grows and swells, oblivious to its location. And at the end of each cycle it bleeds as well, only with no place for the blood to go. And that causes pain, bloating, inflammation, bowel issues, scar tissue etc., including infertility.

The only way to diagnosis it is with surgery. And while it’s being diagnosed it’s possible to remove all the errant tissue. Unfortunately, as long as you are ovulating, there’s no real way to keep it from coming back though.

There are theories as to what causes it, but nothing firm. There are theories about why it causes infertility, but nothing firm.

My first cycle after my first surgery I took a total of 6 Ibuprofen. And I finally counted how many I had been taking before – over 45 over the course of 4-5 days each month. Not normal.

I got mad that no doctor had ever asked me the questions before that would’ve revealed that what was normal pain for me wasn’t normal pain for everyone, that the pain I’d been experiencing for over a decade could’ve been taken care of a lot earlier, perhaps keeping it from impacting my fertility so badly as well. I’d never heard of endometriosis before we started suspecting fertility problems. So I didn’t know what to bring up with a doctor either.

March is “Endometriosis  Awareness Month.” I am VERY aware of it now. I just wish I’d been more aware of it before.