Medical Update

Yesterday was one of those fun days where I got to visit the gynecologist. Luckily, it was just a follow-up to some tests I've had done recently. As many of you are aware, several years ago I was diagnosed with polycycstic ovarian syndrome or PCOS. It is an endocrine disorder that cause several different things in me including infertility, hair growth in the wrong places, hair loss in other wrong places, running on high insulin (though not diabetic yet), and difficulty in weight loss among other things. I have been extremely fortunate in having a doctor diagnose me correctly and early and I have been able to control several of the risk factors and through God's wonderful works, had two beautiful children. Well, since moving to Washington I have not been as good about going to the doctor and establishing regular check-ups, etc. I hate finding a new doctor and rehashing all the bad stuff that has happened over the last several years including what decisions were made and why. Now that I am through having babies, I decided that I needed to get a hold on my syndrome again but for different reasons. My entire focus before was getting healthy enough to have children. Now that is no longer the case and need to find another reason to stay and get healthy. This was really pressing to me after aunt Sheri had been diagnosed with uterine cancer. I do not have regular periods, if at all, and I know that can be a risk factor for developing cancer later on in life.

After talking to my family doctor about some things going on that would be too detailed and too long to write in this blog, he suggested I go see a gynecologist about a procedure called uterine ablasion. Basically, they burn off the lining of the uterus so I will have no lining to grow and slough off. That would resolve worries about future cancer and the heavy bleeding I do have when I finally have a period. After several tests and talking to gynecologist, he really strongly felt that that would not be the best solution and suggested a birth control method called Mirena. Since birth control is not an issue for me (tubal ligation) I would have the birth control for the hormones it released. It would do the same thing as the surgical procedure but hormonally rather than physically with added benefits of controlling hair growth, etc. However, before we proceeded, he wanted me to go in for an ultrasound and confirm that I still in fact have PCOS and check out the lining of the uterus.

Yesterday's appt. was to discuss those ultrasound findings. Apparently, he feels that my ovaries are not cystic enough for him to be comfortable calling it PCOS. I still have some PCOS traits and characteristics but they are pretty minor and he isn't sure that PCOS is the cause of some of the problems I may be having. So I have pretty mixed feelings. Praise the Lord that the PCOS has backed off (because I am fairly confident that I did in fact have PCOS at one point) but then what is going on? Something obviously is wrong because things aren't functioning the way they should. So off to the lab for another panel of bloodwork. This time we are specifically testing my estrogen and testosterone levels along with a few others. What is funny, is I don't think those levels have ever been tested. The doctors were always checking my thyroid and progesterone levels because those were key numbers for getting pregnant but I don't remember ever getting my estrogen checked. You would think that would be important. The doctor also indicated that the lining of my uterus was not built up very well at all for not having a period in a while. To him, it almost looks like someone entering menopause. But that is good news also, because it means that my uterus isn't getting stimulated at all and so it isn't a risk factor for uterine cancer. So the Mirena or ablation would not do me any good for the reasons I had originally seen the doctors.

So we are in a holding pattern at this point until I can get more results from the bloodwork. In a crazy way I hope they come back with a definitave answer that we can treat and deal with instead of all these unanswered questions. Then we can move forward with a plan instead of the rote "change your lifestyle, eat better, and lose weight." I do need to do those things and it would probably help many things but I have a feeling in my heart that it isn't the cause of many factors going on in my body. And obviously I have been doing some things right if my PCOS has backed off so dramatically. In either case, it makes me so extremely grateful for my two children. They truly are a miracle if the test indications are true and I shouldn't have been ovulating or conceiving. Luckily, nothing is going on that is life-threatening at this point. It is just one of those things that if I don't get some stuff under control now while I'm young then the chances of a heart-attack, cancers, diabetes, and other things when I'm older rise dramatically. So pass a prayer thought my way when you think about it and I'll post more updates as I learn more.