Did you get a second opinion?

My regular doctor referred me to a gyn, so that was my second opinion. He went through all the options I had available to me. Together with all the research I did, I know he didn't miss anything. There really wasn't a need for me to see another gyn. I already knew I wanted a hysterectomy.

If a radiologist counts...that was a second oppinion. He came in to talk to me about the comparison from the ultrasound from 2 years earlier and asked me flat out if my Dr had recommended a Hyst the LAST time? He then told me he was faxing the results to my new Dr. as the old one had closed her practice. He said if we had been taking a watch and wait approach...(we were..then she closed her practice) ...the watching and waiting should be over now.

He was suprised I had not had it done after after the first ultrasound. New GYN did a biopsy and scheduled me for surg before the biopsy came back. Can't find any positive or hopeful reading on post menopausal bleeding either.....so I knew there was no putting it off again.

I wish I would of gotten a first opinion!!! I had been having excessive bleeding in Nov. and Dec. got a pap smear in late March and was told I was starting menopause. So thought that it was normal to bleed like crazy. I was getting so wiped out that in early July I finally went back to the dr and they thought my hormones might need a boost so they put me on hormones , by the way I had a hemoglobin of 7.5 at that time. I was "a little pale". When they got the test results back and said my hormones where fine I decided I didn't need them and stopped taking them. Why should I take hormones if I don't need them , everybody knows they are dangerous ?! She couldn't tell me why I had so much pain. So off I go and 3 days later I went to the emergency room cause I was in so much pain and bleeding so bad. I work at the hospital. That was on a Saturday and they sent me home with an appointment to see the dr Monday. The emergency room dr warned me that I could lose my uterus. So I laid in bed for 2 days thinking about having a hysterectomy. I'd heard of a lot of women that end up with 2 or more surgeries and I'd had several pap smears that had came back with problems so I decided then that I just as well have the works. Remove the uterus, ovaries and cervix , that way I wouldn't have to worry about any thing. I decided this with no real information. When I got to the dr office on Monday he asked what I wanted to do, my hemoglobin was 6.5 now but they though it was probably even lower then that because I was dehydrated too. I told him to take it all. He said ok and never said any thing else. I my heart I feel like I made a good decision but I'm angry about how this all happened and then all the complications that happened after wards. I wish I would of found this site sooner but I didn't know I had fibroides I was googling menopause and never came across this site. After I got home from the hospital the first time I googled fibroid and thats when I found you! Thank you for being there!

I had been going to a dr in my hometown and they kept telling me that the pain was from IBS and that I had to deal with the pain, blood clots, and not being able to use the restroom for weeks at a time and peeing all the time. I went out of town to a dr that a friend of mine recommended and he said that I didn't have IBS that my uterous was stuck to my intestines, by way of endemetrosis. When I had surgery and went for my check up dr told me I was eat up with endemetrosis and andementrosis.

Sometimes the ones who know you the longest are not dealing with the problem at hand. She kept giving me Zelnorm and telling me the pain was in my head.

I went to my gyn a few years ago after dealing with the pain and clots and flooding for about year. His response was, "the best thing to do is to have a hysterectomy". I was already trying natural progesterone for my PMS symptoms and it was helping. I had read that higher doses of natural progesterone can help with endometriosis and told him I wanted to try that. He said there really wasn't any proof of that and suggested birth control. He put me on the progestin pill (not the same as nat. prog.). I had SEVERE side effects (not the first time that's happened). Changed me to another birth control. Did that for 4 or 5 months. Had adverse side effects from that and decided to find a doc that would treat me with natural progesterone.

Found one. We've been working with natural prog. for about a year. It did help, but not enough. And she finally advised me when she tried to do a pap smear a week after my cycle was over and I was still too sensitive to handle the mashing on my stomach, that there was no reason for me to stay in pain like this. Menopause could still be 15-20 years away for me. My cycles were taking 1/3 of the month away from me, coming every 20 days and interferring with my life. Sex was even starting to hurt.

So, at her advice, I decided to go ahead and have it done, knowing I had tried everything else. There doc has back problems so they have a surgeon they contract with for their surgeries. He's actually an oncologist and was very nice. He noted how young I was and repeatedly tried to make me think twice. He didn't have all the info from the first gyn, though. Turns out I had some spots of endo on my ovaries (he knew I really didn't want to loose them and was able to carterize those spots and keep my ovaries. I did have endometriosis and adenmyosis. Another confirmation on having it done. If I had waited any longer I might would have lost my ovaries.

So, yes I got the second opinion. I'm glad that I did because I would have second guessed whether I did the right thing if I would have gone through with the surgery initially.

Patty

I said no on the survey but actually I go 3 opinons over the last 15 years and waited until I went into a natural menapause. It was obviously not an emergency or cancer and I could wait unt it felt like it was the right time for me and my body. I am hoping to avoid hormone replacement therapy as my mother has had breast cancer.

I had been having problems with heavy bleeding and clots for about 8 years. We didn't have insurance so I couldn't do anything about it. We finally got insurance and I was so relieved that something could be done, I didn't need another opinion.

I was happy to finally hear there was a solution to the pain, and had the insurance and a boyfriend to help me. I never thought of a second opinion due to being past child bearing age. Why they took so long to come up with this solution is a wonder to me. Maybe I had opposed it. I don't recall. But to end the pain was well worth it. When they went in to what was to be vaginal, a fibroid was found, so an abdominal was done. And all the time, I had had a bladder problem with that fibroid tumor probably resting on the bladder. So of everything I have done in my life, this was the greatest decision even though it seemed to take me a year to recover. After precisely a year, I was back to my old self. However, were it to all happen today, I would have sought more opinions regarding the pain, and not been so docile about accepting pain. Probably I had seen my mother take so much pain in her life, I thought it was normal.

The gynecologist I'd seen for a few years said - total abdominal hysterectomy - period because my fibroids and uterus were "too big" for a vaginal procedure.

Not really enthused about the idea of a 6-8 week recovery, I sought an opinion from another gynecologic surgeon who performs Da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery. His comment - I think it's very do-able!

And it was...albeit it took 4.5 hours of surgery!! My uterus was 10 times the size/weight of normal. But he did it! He told me at my post-op visit that, had I come a year ago b4 he started Da Vinci, the only way he could have done my surgery was with a TAH.

Thank G-d it took me time to get around to doing something about those danged fibroids!

I am so glad I got my second opion....My first doctor that I went to for my heavy bleeding was to me "cut happy". So I went on the web and I found my doctor. We were not sure what was going on....3 ultra-sounds showed only one fibroid tumor on the outside of my uterus. So we tried to IUD. That controlled the heavy bleeding for awhile (5 months) but I never stopped bleeding. My 6 th month with the IUD the bleeding started picking up again. That is when I decided to go ahead and have the hysterectomy. Found out my uterus had 4 more large tumors in it and that I would not have stopped bleeding. But I needed that 6 months to get myself ready for surgery and not having a doctor trying to push me into it. I'm glad we did use the IUD...it got my blood levels built back up for surgery.