I completely agree with @A MyEndometriosisTeam Member. Regular OBGYNS, oncology OBGYNs & Endometriosis excision surgeons ALL do surgery via Laproscopy. Laproscopy just means that they make several small incisions instead of one long bikini line one like they do for c-sections. So the term "laproscopy" just refers to the size & location of the incisions. It doesn't tell you anything about the actual amount of work done inside or how skilled the surgeon is.

Every surgery creates a certain amount of internal scar tissue which can also cause pain, so if you can minimize the # of surgeries you have & see an expert from the start, that's always better.

Your average OBGYN will only remove the big obvious growths & diagnose you but miss all the small ones & they don't do bowel surgery or thoracic surgery, many don't even check both the inside & outside of the bladder, ureters, vagina, & uterus, or the entire abdominal wall, or the liver, spleen, etc.

So then you have to have surgery with an expert anyway & deal with pain & ineffective hormonal suppression in the meantime. It's a huge pain, literally, & costs way more $ and leaves you with more scar tissue. Definitely at least check to see if you can find an expert who will do the surgery to both diagnose & excise all growths in 1 surgery.

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A MyEndom...

Hi! I would go to an expert first, even though it's a bit intimidating when you're not diagnosed yet. That's what I did, and I'm so glad I did it! A regular GYN isn't trained enough to treat endo, and they probably don't even know all of the different appearances and places of endo to look for and may not even be able to tell if you have it or not see all of it. Even if they do, they won't be able to remove all of it from multiple organs in your body since that takes extensive skill. I don't know if you've heard of excision specialists, but they can thoroughly remove the endo, greatly reducing the chance you'll need any additional surgeries. They will also be able to tell pretty accurately based on your symptom history and exams whether you have it before recommending surgery. It's so worth going to someone who knows what they are doing and can help you the first time, rather than waste time and money on procedures that will probably fail and even cause more damage. If you want some good resources to find a specialist, check out Nancy's Nook on Facebook, if you haven't already. 😊 I hope this helps. I know I felt like I was crazy for traveling to a specialist when I didn't even know I had endo, but it is the best thing I ever did!

The laparo procedure is non-invasive with super quick recovery. Or, at least in my experience, and I’ve had two. It’s really the only way they can find out if you have endo. My second procedure was done by the Davinci robot which the results have lasted about twice as long as the non-Davinci procedure. Sadly, I’m back to all of the pain and symptoms after about a 2 year break. Anyways, good luck to you!

Sadly, the only way to diagnose endo is w/ a laporoacopy. Maybe get it done with your OBGYN and see a specialized surgeon after if needed?

@A MyEndometriosisTeam Member I have never heard of Nancy’s Nook. I will check it out. Thank you so much for sharing all of this information on what to look for. I am so grateful for your support and guidance!

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A MyEndom...