endrometrosis why birth control??

[kelly McC]

My obgyn said were going to use birth control pills to take care of the endrometrosis. I am a bit confused to why they use birth control ??? every time they put me on b.c pills it caused more problems than it ever helped me ! We talked about it and she said we can try a shot or a patch ? She thought it would not cause me the problems the pills did ??
Kelly

[HillaryD]

I cannot take BC pills and my Gyno wanted to put me on them as well for my Endo, and I told her I couldn't take them and asked about the shot and patches and she told me that they have the same side effects that the pills do. Have you had a laparoscopy done? If you haven't you need to bring this up to your Gyno. I wish you the best of luck!

[kelly McC]

Yep my obgyn did the laparoscopy with my cysto/hydro all in one ! It was thankful it could be done at once! Thats what I thought if I had trouble with the pills the others would the same but she seemed to think diffrent? Hum well I will have to discuss this with her more! We decided to wait till I got adjusted to my new med's for the IC and pain first and them work on birth control for endometriosis! Just was wondering why birth control is used or was there other options ?
Kelly

[HillaryD]

The BC pills can help by balancing the hormones in your body which in turn help the endometrial lining to not be too thick and help the endometriosis not grow. There are other medications you can try such as Lupron, but this medication comes with a lot of unpleasant side effects that many people cannot tolerate. My Gnyo doesn't think I would be able to take the Lupron at all, my body is very sensitive to medicines, so I am currently not even treating my Endo. I had my last lap in Oct 2003, which then led me to finding out a few months later that I have IC. There are other options out there with Endo that I would discuss with your Dr. Good luck!
grouphug

[ICNJess]

I use Ortho Evra. My hormones were outta wack, and the pill only made things worse. I would bleed through the pills and they couldn't figure out why. Ortho Evra contains hormones LIKE those in birth control, so I think that this helps some. I didn't do well on Depo Provera either. frown

[momw/ic]

Unfortunately I am a severe endo veteran. Endo growth is stimulated by estrogen. The theory behind the BC pills is balance. The Depo shots and the Lupron shots (I have used both) actually make you top heavy on progesterone and help stifle estrogen production. The only way to get rid of endo is to surgically removed it from your body but the hormone therapies can help keep it from growing more and can help with the pain flare ups that it causes. I had my uterus removed hoping that would help and when I was worse 3 years later had my ovaries removed also. Six months later I had a lap and discovered I had endo ALL over inside me...bowels, bladder etc...The estrogen I was taking for menopause symptoms stimulated growth of endo that was not removed in the previous surgeries. That was a year and a half ago and that time everything was removed, I have been on HRT and have no reoccurance. It is important to have a doctor who is knowledgable in endo and all of it's different colors and locations. It can even be found on the lungs! Good luck and I hope this helps!

Pam

[Mimi-in-Chicagoland]

I had a gyn who let me skip periods to help my IC not flare and keep the endo from growing. That helped a lot. I can't take hormones anymore. Balancing hormones and having regular periods or no periods does help.

Kelly, what were the problems that you had on BC??

[kelly McC]

when on the pill I always had more difficultly with my cycle ! Doc said that happens sometimes !!! She said there are other options so I'll have to see what she comes up with !

[Katrina]

Birth Control pills made me worse too. Sounds like others explained why. I would look into other options....good luck on getting relief.