Interesting. My family is a fascinating study of reproductive woes…my mother, aunt, and grandmother had endometriosis. My other aunt had uterine cancer. My oldest sister has polycystic ovarian syndrome. My middle sister doesn’t ovulate. Indeed–no one has managed to go through menapause in my family for the past 3 generations. All females on my mother’s side have had hysterectomies–and my oldest sister is next in line.
I, on the other hand, am on the Pill. It keeps POS and endometriosis (which I’ll refer to here as EMTS) in remission. Apparently, those little ovum are gnarly little beasties and I have to keep them corralled in the ovaries to keep from suffering such ill effects. I guess.
Fortunately, I do have family history on my side. When I started having blindingly painful cramps–accompanied by passing out, the absence of blood pressure, vomitting, etc–I went straight to the doc. She said, as does this article, that EMTS is very hard to diagnose. But…considering my family history, it is something to ponder–and the Pill puts it in remission. Even if I don’t have EMTS, it will still alleviate the symptoms.
That was 7 years ago. I have had “normal” functions ever since. 
Interesting…around the same time as I started on birth control pills, I was having generalized body aches and pains–throbbing joints, etc. The doc thought I had rheumatoid arthritis, although it was later discounted (I didn’t have the redness or severe swelling–just aches). I never made the correlation of the reduction in those pains with going on the Pill, but now I wonder.
Huh. Whaddya know.
Lordy, I love them birth control pills…
FWDed to my friend Lance, whose fiancée has endo. She had recently (past 6 months) been getting strange allergies and such, so maybe this will help figure out some of those.
[sub]Yes, that Lance.[/sub]
I was lucky with my endometriosis. It was diagnosed almost at once, and this was over twenty years ago. My left tube and ovary had to go though. By God, once *I[/’ felt that pain I didn’t dawdle around, and went right to the doctor. Worst think I ever felt until I started getting kidney stones about four years ago.