Endometriosis - First Diagnosis

I first got an inkling that I might have endometriosis and would need surgery back in July 2006. I had been waking up in pain the middle of the night a few days before the beginning of my period for about 9 months. At first, I thought I was just having period cramps. As the months progressed, the pain became worse, until I finally ended up on the bathroom floor, writhing, feeling as if I would vomit, have a bowel movement and pass out, all at the same time. At that point, I decided to see a doctor. Rather than go to my regular OB-GYN, whom I thought was great for yearly check ups, but perhaps not as sophisticated as these symptoms might merit, I visited Dr. Gary Goldman, a OB-GYN in New York City, who is also listed on certain endometriosis websites as being an endometriosis expert (not that I knew this, or even suspected that I might have endometriosis at the time, I just heard that he was very qualified and very nice).

Dr. Goldman is very nice and has a calm, soothing manner. He has a well-appointed, private office, on east 66th street off Madison avenue (and does not accept insurance). There were two or three women ahead of me for my first appointment. I probably ended up waiting an hour (something I normally never do - if a doctor is an hour late, I just leave), but given the fact I was told that he is very good, I decided to relax my policies on tardiness...

The first half of our meeting I just talked to Dr. Goldman, explaining the progression of my pain, how it was only at night just a few days before my period started, and didn't even occur every month; how I had gone off the pill about a year and a half before after having been on it on-and-off for almost 20 years, and how I had started spot-bleeding about 5 days before my period the month after I stopped taking the pill.

The second half of my appointment Dr. Goldman did a regular pelvic exam and then, did a sonogram, as he has a basic sonogram machine in his office. This is a nice perk as it allows him to immediately get an idea if a patient has cysts or other growths. During the sonogram, Dr. Goldman found a 3 cm cyst on my right ovary. He explained that this was very likely the cause of my pain and that regardless of what type of cyst it was, that it would have to be removed via surgery. This was very scary for me to hear, never having had surgery before and never even suspecting that I might have a cyst down there. He then referred me to a radiology center to get a more sophisticated sonogram (I would never use that center again, but that's another story).

After that sonogram, everything pointed toward an endometrioma. An endometrioma, also known as a chocolate cyst, is generally a cyst that is related to endometriosis. The spot bleeding I had been experiencing before my period since stopping the pill also pointed toward the possibility of endometriosis.

Unlike many woman who have surgery for endometriosis, other than the pain I was experiencing late at night just before my period for about 20 minutes, I wasn't in any other severe pain. My periods were painful, but I didn't think of them as being unbearably so. I was pretty much accustomed to the first two days of my period as being very unpleasant and then feeling pretty good after that. If it had just been based on period pain alone, I would have never consented to surgery. However, a 3.2 cm cyst is another story, and the pain related to that, although relatively brief and infrequent, was extremely severe and debilitating.

I did go on to have surgery and 6 months later my symptoms and cyst returned, but I'll tell you about all of that in another entry...