My best friend friend has been trying to get pregnant for several years. Her doctor has finally told her she's got a 40-50% chance of having endometriosis. She's got to decide whether to spend $5-25K doing exploratory surgery to see if she has endo (and to minimize the cysts) or to spend $18K to try in vitro without knowing if endo is her problem. She would strongly perfer to conceive as naturally as possible, but she also wants the best chances of conceiving. Does anyone have advice?
2006-08-07 17:26:41 · 4 answers · asked by moab 2 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Trying to Conceive
First off, I would seek a second opinion with the surgery. There are other methods to determin endo. other than expl. surg. . And then if she finds that they still want to do it, I would have the surgery. Better to spend the money on surgery first then have In-Vitro than to have In-Vitro, then find out you need to have surgery and then do the In-Vitro again.
2006-08-07 17:32:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In my opinion, I think she should first get a second opinion, and then do the surgury before the In-Vitro. If it is endo, there probably would have been signs of it before, and if not, and she has it and does the In-Vitro first without knowing, there could be complications of some kind because of it. The endo could've damaged her tubes or ovaries or something and that could be causing all of her trouble conceiving.
I was diagnosed with endo several years ago, after having emergency surgery to take out my appendix. Turns out that I didn't even have appendicitis, but a ruptured ovarian cyst.
After having that cleaned up, I went on the Pill to regulate my period, and then last year I went off of it and had no trouble conceiving.
Tell her good luck in whichever way she decides to go!
2006-08-08 02:15:29 · answer #2 · answered by Queen Queso 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first thing to think about is that Endo causes infertility as well as many other painful symptoms. While there is no cure, treatment such as surgical excision (see www.centerforendo.com) can help alleviate not only the pain, but also drastically improves fertility rates. There is no guarantee that if she undergoes IVF she won't a.) still be unable to conceive because of the disease and/or b.) will end up with a beautiful new baby that she is in too much pain from the disease to really enjoy motherhood with.
Best chances of conceiving are to a.) get diagnosed with the cause of her infertility, i.e., confirm the presence of the disease through laparoscopic surgery and b.) have it definitively removed. THEN she can attempt to conceive naturally and if that still doesn't work, then move on to IVF. It is entirely possible to treat Endo successfully if the doctor knows what he or she is really doing.
I recommend visiting the site above (centerforendo.com) and sharing with her the real deal on Endo. No point in undergoing IVF when it's not going to treat the problem in the first place.
Good luck to her.
2006-08-08 10:35:22 · answer #3 · answered by Endo 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
She should seriously get a 2nd opinion it sounds as though this doc is just trying to cash in, there are other ways to test for endometriosis if the second doc agrees with her first doc then maybe she has a doctor that is truly looking out for her needs but i would first test for endometriosis then see what her options are
2006-08-08 03:16:02 · answer #4 · answered by danny p 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋