I love how WordPress says endometriosis isn’t a word. Go ahead. Try spell-checking it.

Anywho, I had a doctor’s visit on the 8th of this month with my new gynecologist (my previous one retired, which made me sad), and she’s helping me to continue treating endometriosis.

Treating endometriosis can involve two different options:

1. Do what I did and treat it with an injection that stops you from producing estrogen (e.g. Lupron Depot, Depo-Provera) and see if it helps
2. Have surgery to determine for sure if it’s endometriosis and then basically do option 1.

Now, as much as I would have loved to meet my deductible earlier in the year, I opted for option 1. So the 8th was my two-year anniversary of taking the injections to treat it, and I decided that, rather than continuing treating endometriosis with those injections, I would switch to birth control pills and see if that would be enough.

Depo-Provera lets you take it up to ten years safely, but there is the drawback of losing bone density. If you take it less than ten years, your bone density will come back. I, however, can’t afford to be on it as long because I have a history of osteoporosis in my family. It’s also far more expensive to stay on Depo-Provera versus the pills, so… money.

For those wondering what endometriosis is, it’s when the lining that normally forms in the uterus forms outside the uterus, thus causing some pretty severe pain. I personally found that it aggravated other physical and mental ailments I had, in particular my anxiety. I was in such horrible pain that the stress made me even more sick, and one day I got so dehydrated and was in so much pain that, had I been able to get up, I would have killed myself. I have never felt more out of control of my own mind than I did that day.

So for me, endometriosis is a pretty big deal. I really really don’t want to go through it again. However, I’m less than thrilled to get back to the monthly grind, so to speak. I’m already getting crampy and agitated. Also, when I went on the Lupron Depot, it literally put me through menopause. My body stopped producing estrogen, so I got all the delightful symptoms associated with it. I went through menopause at age 25. It sucked. So if I were to go back on it, I would have to go through that ALL OVER AGAIN.

No. Just no. These pills had better work. Wish me luck!