Instead of having the surgery to scrape off all the lining that had formed, I was young enough to opt for the non surgical approach, to chemically stop my periods and reabsorb all of the tissue back into my system (in a word: ouch.).
In order to do this, I had to be relatively young (I had had 4 periods since a month after i turned fourteen), and absolutely did not ever want children (and put them through this??).
By the way, I begged doctors for a total hysterectomy at 19. That fell on deaf ears.
I also had a family history on my mother's side of Bad Stuff. What my great-grandmother went through before her hysterectomy, my grandmother went through ten years earlier, and my mother was going through ten years before hers. I could the hear the train comin', so to speak.  
So after some excruciatingly hellish situations of ovarian cysts bursting on my left side, leaving my ovary looking like some sort of scarred moon, I vowed through gushes of vomit, my 15 year old ass lying open in a gown on the cold hospital floor, as the nurse who let me wait screaming for 4 hours offered me ONE Advil... well I knew this wasn't the way to go.
So I stopped my periods. I have to say, my periods were never blood, just purple veiny tissue I could pull off a tampon or would come off on the toilet paper when I wiped. For my mother, she told me later it was the same for her cycles, and for the life of us (seperately) we never could understand what people meent by pads that caught "blood." That wasn't even close.
I'm glad people are more open about talking about such things now. Back then, we were told what a normal flow was, and ""see your doctor" if things become irregular. Would have been nice to know what irregular was. a hint, maybe. Anyway it's bettre now that there is the Internet and good sources of information like these boards.
Now I'm endo and period-free since stopping my cycle in August of 1999.It's a huge thing I don't have to devote my time to.
I get between 5-6 days a month with no IBS = 60 - 72 days a year with no cramping, painful gas and explosive D. Worth it to me? Yeah.
Hope this helps a little--
~nelly~
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Re: Endometreosis
