In May of 2020, I lost a pregnancy in the second trimester. It was at that time that chronic daily pelvic pain took over my life. My husband and I wanted to try again ASAP, but he was diagnosed with cancer and had to go through 6 months of chemo (he’s doing great by the way! Finished treatment in March!). In September 2020, after seeing three docs who believed it was likely endo, I got on the mini pill. My symptoms were somewhat managed on the mini pill after being on it for a couple of months… read more
Your husband would probably benefit from seeing a naturopath too, coming off so many toxic (but necessary, life saving!!) meds to optimise his body and sperm too!
Good luck!!
Thanks for your feedback! I’ve been looking into a naturopath! I honestly think that’s more the route I want to go.
Wow, so sorry for everything you’ve gone through this year. I came off birth control Sept 2019 to hopefully get pregnant and within a few months started having horrendous symptoms and could barely function....turns out I had endo (so many signs over the years but the pill kept a lot of it under control). While I can’t say I feel vibrant or fantastic, I’m probably 70% better. Here’s what I have done:
- Naturopathic Dr (acupuncture, numerous remedies/supplements .. always changing depending on current status, comprehensive stool analysis - highly recommend to help determine what is going on in your gut and target treatments)
- Iron infusion (ferritin was in the 30s and did not improve with oral supplementation... should be 50-100 for fertility and reducing anemia symptoms)
- Heal Endo diet (Katie Edmonds) ...different than the vegetarian diet many suggest for endo but I was veg for a decade and had never ending gut issues, plus for fertility I just felt like it made sense
- cyclical progesterone (day 15-28, just 5mg topical, rub on inner thigh)... I asked for this as I had a chemical pregnancy in Jan and suspect 2 others in 2020 and had all signs of estrogen dominance/progesterone deficiency despite the bloodwork alwaya coming back normal
- Mercier therapy / organ manipulation by an osteopath... total game changer after just 2 sessions and now just waiting to continue (we went into covid lockdown and he had to close)
We have another meeting with our fertility specialist in a few weeks to further discuss surgery/IVF. Will prob do IVF in a few months if unsuccessful before then. It does sound like endo, but even if its not, I think all of these things will still be of benefit to reduce your symptoms, improve organ mobility/blood flow to pelvis, and get your body ready for a baby. Surgery can improve pregnancy rates but you’d want excision surgery by an endo specialist who will take it allll out. If you have to have a second surgery, it can lower pregnancy rates. If they remove endometriomas, it can reduce your ovarian reserve. Very complex... I have read clinical guidelines from all over the world trying to make the best decisions!
Also highly recommend the podcast “mastering your fertility”.. they have several endo related episodes and others that may help guide you with what testing and such may be of use.