Mr N's Pregnancy and Birth I

I was probably around age 3 when I knew I wanted kids. So when I was 25 and have been married for 2 years, I went to the gynae, hoping that he'll declare me fit and healthy so that I can start a family. I walked out of his office devastated and in tears. The gynae told me that I most likely have something called “endometriosis” and that it causes women to be infertile.

Infertile. The word reverberated through my head the rest of the weekend and until the Wednesday when I had to go to hospital so that the gynae could do a laparoscopy (a small incision is made in the navel through which they take a look inside). And he found it. Endometriosis patches, as they call it. Endo, for short.

Endo is when small pieces of endometrium (the lining within the uterus) is found outside the uterus, in the abdomen. It also goes through hormonal stimulation, thus bleeding every 4 weeks. This causes inflammation and scarring, which causes damage to the organs to which they get stuck. Currently, there is no cure for endo. They also do not know what causes it. Though there's a few theories.

So when I was diagnosed with endo, I realised....it's not going to be an easy road to pregnancy. I was fortunate though, some people get awful endo patches on their fallopian tubes and ovaries. Mine was mostly on the bladder and uterus's outside. No wonder I had so many strange bladder symptoms no one could ever explain!

The gynae told me if I want children, he needed to do a laparotomy. I was like WHAT??? That's major surgery! They cut you open from side to side, and try to get rid of the endo patches. I told him to wait, stop the bus. So I went home and started to do some research. And I came to the conclusion that this gynae is very old fashioned. He should've tried to get rid of the endo patches while he was in there already with the laparoscopy. Not just close me up and book a laparotomy. Which was the way doctors used to do it. Long ago. It's rarely used today, since a laparoscopy could in most cases, work just as well.

So I changed gynies. The 2^nd one proposed medication. I agreed, it sounded like an easier road than a 6-week recovery after the laparotomy! If only I knew...

The medication is given in monthly injections, directly into the stomach. It was terrifying, but thank goodness for Emla patches! It's a local anaesthesia. Though, it still burned inside the stomach for hours afterwards. But the worst was to come,

Within weeks, I was in severe pain. They say it's a side effect of the medication. It first stimulates the endo patches, causing the pain of it to worsen tenfold. It should've tapered off after a few weeks. Unfortunately in my case, it didn't. It just got worse and worse with each week, and with each injection. After about a month, I was unable to work. I was unable to stand upright. It was awful. I tried every painkiller prescribed by the gynae, nothing worked.

The injections also put you in pseudo-menopause, in the hope that it will shrink the endo patches. Unfortunately, with menopause comes side-effects. I got headaches, hot flushes, mood swings and depression. Insomnia ensued, for which I had to take medication as well.

After the 2^nd injection, and being off work for weeks, the doctor gave me hormonal pills to try and curb the side effects. It helped a little bit and I could return to work on some days. Fortunately my bosses were most understanding. A month passed after the 3^rd injection, and the doctor advised us to start trying for pregnancy. It was mid April 2000. I haven't had a cycle for 4 months due to the hormones. He sent me for some bloodtests, but told us to go for the wrong test. He blamed me, but both me and hubby heard what he said. He's one of those doctors that sees patients from 7am until 7pm. I blame the fact that he was most likely tired when he made the mistake. But I didn't appreciate him telling me it was MY mistake. Not when hubby confirmed that it was the doctor's mistake.

He also told me to pick up weight. Yes. Uhm. I've been trying to do that for 25 years, dr! He said that nobody under 47kg will be able to fall pregnant. I was 43kg.

To be continued...