Cervical polyp diagnosis

We've all heard of "orphan diseases" -- ones which don't affect very many people. Well, my problem is similar in that it doesn't really fit into any of the categories here. It's extremely difficult to find any information on it except from my doctor. Which is all well and good, except that my experience with doctors over the last 10 years has been less than thrilling. I ALWAYS do my own research, and it has solved things on many occasions. I guess my overall trust level in what doctors tell me is not that great.

My problem is this: I had some light bleeding with intercourse, then one incident of flooding. This was after many months of increasing pain which I thought was due to my endometriosis.However, it turned out to be a very large cervical polyp essentially blocking any blood from escaping the uterus and pressing on just about everything around it. My regular gyno noticed the polyp during my annual exam but somehow thought it was no big deal and wanted to put me on Lupron. Uh... no. So he referred me to a guy who specializes in menstrual disorders (but seriously... is kind of an *******).

So after this new doctor tried to make me think the problem was all in my head because "victims of abuse frequently have unexplained pelvic pain," he finally did an ultrasound. He called the nurse in to look because he had never seen anything like it. Now mind you, this is after the first gyno's ultrasound tech missed it altogether. So January this year I had a hysteroscopy under sedation to remove it, but the doctor said it was difficult to see whether they had removed it all, and he wanted to be conservative so as not to cause scar tissue. Fine, cool. Nice to have that consideration. However, I just did the second hysteroscopy last week and when I woke up he was there telling my mother, who took me to the appt, that we would have to do yet another surgery. That they couldn't get it all and needed bigger instruments, and it had grown back really fast. And that concerned him because they might need to take out too much of the cervix, so therefore a hysterectomy might be necessary.

I have the followup next Thursday to discuss all this, but needless to say I am overwhelmed. That's NOT what I expected to hear when I woke up! I can't find a story anywhere where a cervical polyp was the reason for a hysterectomy. The doctor looked back at the pathology report from the first surgery to make sure it wasn't cancer, so that wasn't a thrilling feeling...

I know there are a lot of knowledgeable ladies here, as I have been lurking for some time, so maybe one of you can please help me find some info on this, or possible alternatives?!

I read your story and want to say I am sorry for what you are going through. As for me, I have a polyp embedded in my uterus and have an appointment with my gyno on Friday, 5/9 to discuss a hysterectomy (my choice).

Let me know how you are doing.

Thanks for the reply! I had a followup yesterday actually and I asked my doctor how likely he thought it would be for us to get the whole polyp out with this next hysteroscopy. He said 90% but I'm not sure I have that much faith. I think we should listen to our intuition and mine says I'm not so sure it will be that simple. I'm not trying to be negative, but realistically, and with my family history, it's pretty likely that there will be other problems if not a recurrence of this polyp. I'd rather get it taken care of now rather than when I move thousands of miles away from anyone I know in about a year and a half, when my grad degree is done.

I am still having a lot of pain and discomfort daily and I haven't been able to find any information on cervical polyps causing pain. All the sources I've found said they are usually symptomless except for bleeding.

The other thing I wanted to ask people about is this: I will have to go in the day before to have a seaweed stick inserted to partially dilate the cervix. They are going to sedate me for it (I guess I'm extremely sensitive to cervical pain? I've had bad experiences with saline sonograms before.) but I'm wondering if there will be a lot of discomfort during the day when I wake up. Looks like another two days off of work that I can't afford.