Re: Birth control meds will NOT relieve adhesion pain...based on my experience

From: cathy:- (anonymous@medispecialty.com)
Fri Jan 17 15:57:33 2003


>From what I understand birth control pills *might* help, but only under
very limited circumstances. I have a friend with endo whose doctor was very hot to get her to take Lupron. She did some research on the side effects and was horrified. She also came upon a scheme for taking birth control pills where you take the 3 weeks of a pack and then immediately start a new pack without taking the week of placebos. This means that you don't have a period. You can only do this so long -- if you don't let yourself have ANY periods eventually you will get endometrial cancer. But it appears that a period every 3 months or every 6 months or even once a year is safe. Some doctors even theorize that this is more "normal" than having a period every month. A woman who has 10 or 15 kids and breastfeeds each one for a couple of years can go most of her reproductive life only having the odd period here and there.

My friend's doctor said sure, this was worth a trial, and if it didn't help then they could always reconsider Lupron later. Well in her case the continuous birth-control pills gave her all of the endo relief that was promised from the Lupron, with no side effects.

So, yes, IF you have endo, and yes, IF the birth-control pills help the endo, THEN this might very well help the adhesion pain, too. And help prevent or at least minimize the continued spread of adhesions.

So on the one hand there are a lot of "ifs" in there and it may very well not work. But on the other hand it is not a nutty idea, either, and it is probably worth a try, especially if you don't fall into any of the usual risk classes with the pill.

At Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Helen Dynda wrote: >
>X> Birth control meds will NOT relieve adhesion pain...based on my experience
>
>I know birth control medications are being prescribed for women who have endometriosis - as well as for true birth control. The purpose of the birth control medications is to prevent endometrial implants from bleeding within the pelvic cavity at the same time as a woman has her menstrual period.
>
>I doubt very much that birth control meds will relieve adhesion pain....based on my experience:
>
>I had a laparotomy in February 1970 - and 5 days later I began to experience the return of pain. From that point on until July 1970 my doctor tried different medications (except pain medication) in an attempt to find a medication that would relieve my pain. None of the medications helped!!
>
>So then in July 1970 he decided to treat me for "suspected" endometriosis. For that he prescribed birth control medications (Combid and Enovid).
>
>Then in November 1970 I began to experience severe pain in my left leg - from my knee down to and including my left foot!!
>
>Nine days later the pain became so painful that I could hardly walk - and I finally went to the doctor. He recognized immediately that I had severe thrombophlebitis (a blood clot) in my leg; because it was "hard" to the touch and it felt feverish (much warmer than usual).
>
>He told me I had to go to the hospital immediately!! The minute I walked into the hospital, I was whisked away to a room where I was confined to a bed (with my leg elevated) for a week!!!
>
>I was told I could never take birth control medication again; because the possibility of developing a blood clot is one of the complications of taking birth control meds.
>
>Twenty-seven (27) years later I learned (for the very first time) that massive adhesions - attaching my omentum to my abdominal wall -had actually been the cause of my pain during the time I was being treated for "suspected" endometriosis.
>
>I did NOT have endometriosis!! Endometriosis was NOT the cause of my pain!!
>
>What's my point? Based on my experience, Combid and Enovid (birth control medications) did NOT relieve the pain that I was dealing with in 1970. Adhesions were actually the cause of my pain; and the birth control meds did NOT relieve this adhesion-caused pain!!
>
>Helen D.
>
>~ ~ ~ ~
>
>Re: any success with birth control for adhesions? ; From: Tonya Fleming (rainchild_35@hotmail.com) ; Fri Jan 17 10:06:29 2003
>
>Hi Tiffany,
>Good to have you with us. I recently was told that I needed a hysterectomy too. But with adhesions (scar tissue), if you do take out the uterus, there is a great possibility that you could end up with much more adhesions. My gyno told me about a new procedure to stop the bleeding completely without the hyst. It's called NovaSure. I'm going in for this procedure next Friday. What they do is put a tube inside of your cervex (it will be dialated first) and they send up a mesh that actually coterizes the inside of the uteran lining. In layman's terms, it cooks the inside so that you will not bleed any more or if you do, it will be so light with out the cramps. But BE WARE: YOU CAN NOT HAVE MORE CHILDREN WITH THIS PROCEDURE! I have my son and am not able to have more anyways, so I'm doing this to save myself the agony of more surgery and possibly more adhesions. If you need more info, look on a search engine for "NOVESURE". It will tell you all about it. Most women have only discomfort for about a day or two after, as my doctor told me, and then it's over for life. Very non-invasive!
>
>I hope that this helps. I have never heard of going on birth control to stop the adhesion pain, but it makes sense to me, because if you aren't cramping as much, (birth control pills lesson the agony of menstual cramping for some patients), I can see how it might not add to the "already" pain from the adhesions. Adhesions will hurt no matter what if you are prone to it, but it could help during your monthly cycle.
>
>Stay with us and know that you can get some of the greatest info from this site. Until a couple of months ago, I thought that I suffered alone with this horrible disease. I didn't know that other people got this. I really thought that I was the only one. I thought I had some rare disease which made adhesions grow. It was good to find that I am not alone, although, I wish that my friends on here weren't in pain. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. (not even my X hubby and I can't stand him) LOL.
>
>Take care of yourself and hopefully this has helped, Tonya
>
>~ ~ ~ ~
>
>any success with birth control for adhesions? ; From: Tiffany (TLDunbar25@aol.com) ; Fri Jan 17 08:35:21 2003
>
>My dr. put me on birth control pills for my adhesions, saying it will help my uterus quit contracting so much,.my question is I have alot of scar tissue surrounding my uterus could this possibly help...if there is any good news please let me know....good news would be nice to hear, but if there isn't it won't surprise me.....thankyou for your time...

--
cathy :-)

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