Oral Contraceptives

Blog entries that have anything to do with birth control pills, whether it be medications or experiences on those medications

Share Your Story: Patti

| Bloomin' Uterus
Brunette woman wearing a white shirt standing up against a wall covered in red and green leaves

Patti was diagnosed with Stage IV Endometriosis when she was 21 years old.  Today she is 52 years young and lives in Ontario, Canada.  She continues to suffer, but holds tightly onto Hope and has a wonderful network of supportive and understanding friends and family.  Fight on, Patti.  Fight. On. ❤

Patti’s Journey: My Endometriosis Journey, By: Patricia Anne Young

One day after school, my friend invited me back to her place for a swim. We got changed, and I told her I’d meet her outside, as I had to use the washroom… little did I know I was about to become a “Woman”. I was 12…

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Share Your Story: Lakia

| Bloomin' Uterus
African American woman smiling poolside, wearing a white wrap, holding a glass of ice water, and a stuffed giraffe toy

Lakia was diagnosed with Endometriosis when she was 29 years old, after suffering with symptoms since the Sixth Grade.  Now she’s 30, living in San Diego, and she’s found our little support group.  I met Lakia just a few weeks after her diagnositic surgery and she’s recently undergone a difficult decision for her second surgery! Lakia has proven to be an amazing and incredibly strong woman, and someone I am proud to call friend.  Her story follows…

Lakia’s Journey: I always thought in my mind that my reality was normal. But what is normal? My first period was in sixth grade. I remember being so excited because I finally felt like a woman! I stuffed my bra everyday, secretly shaved my legs, and wore tinted lipgloss. But that first period felt like a rite of passage. All of the boys will like me now! Little did I know what was ahead…

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Share Your Story : Melinda

| Bloomin' Uterus
Guyanese woman in a blue shirt and necklace

Melinda lives in Guyana in South America and was 35-years-old when she was diagnosed with Endometriosis.  Now 40, she has started an Endometriosis Support Group in her country.  May she bring the government, the women, and the medical professionals together to raise Endo awareness and improve healthcare for the Guyanese citizens!

Melinda’s Journey: 

🌅 Let me begin by thanking Lisa Drayton from Bloomin’ Uterus for giving me that little nudge I needed to start this Endo conversation in Guyana. My journey with Endometriosis has been a long and very painful one.

During the latter half of my teens I started having severe pains, heavy bleeding, bloating, lower back pain and constipation during my menstrual cycle. The pain was so intense I would sometimes faint.

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Guyana : Endometriosis Care & Treatment

| Bloomin' Uterus
map of guyana

**Updated 10/29/16: If you live in Guyana and have (or think you have) Endometriosis, there IS an online support group created by a woman living in Georgetown:  **

Guyana is a small English-speaking country located on the northeastern coast of South America, next to Venezuela and Brazil.  For a size-comparison, it’s slightly smaller than the state of Idaho.  It’s estimated that 736,000 people live in Guyana, most of whom reside in or near the capital, Georgetown, .  The majority of the country is covered in dense tropical forests.  The rest is grasslands, marshes, and cultivated urban areas.  Guyana has an 11% unemployment rate, and 35% of the population lives below the poverty line.   Unfortunately, nearly 155,000 residents live without electricity.

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A Quick Update from Surgery

| Bloomin' Uterus
A woman smiling in a surgery gown and blue paper surgery hat
A quick pre-op snapshot

So, surgery took place on Wednesday, September 21, 2016.  It’s main intent was to take a look inside to see if my Endometriosis had returned, to excise any lesions and free any adhesions.  The official list of procedures to be possibly done that day, “Robotic Assisted Right and/or Left Ovarian Cystectomy, Excision of Endometriosis and Lysis of Adhesions, Possible Enterolysis, Urethrolysis, and Cystoscopy.”

The surgery took a little over two hours.  I did not get to meet with my surgeon afterward, unfortunately, but did have the pleasure of speaking with him on the telephone before I left the hospital that day.  What I remember:

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Is Flax Good or Bad for Endometriosis

| Bloomin' Uterus
wooden bull with whole flaxseed inside

So for the past several months, I’ve been using flax milk instead of coconut milk in my tea, cereal, and protein shakes.  I’d grown tired of coconut milk, and am also wanting to lose an unwanted and “sudden” 20-pound weight gain.  It really wasn’t sudden, I just hadn’t noticed it until none of my pants fit…grrrr.

I’d read the flaxseed (also known as linseed) was a phenomenal source of Omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and fiber, and people boast of it’s anti-inflammatory properties.  So I was ecstatic to try it out and actually not mind the flavor of flax milk!  It’s gotta be good for my Endo, right?

That is, until this weekend, when someone on an Endo group on Facebook responded to my flax milk post that flax is bad for Endometriosis.  Why?  She didn’t say until several posts later, but it looks like flax seed and flax oil mimic estrogen, much like soy… *grumble grumble grumble*

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Cervical Endometriosis

| Bloomin' Uterus
Sprinkle-covered donut
…not really a cervix, but you get it… 😉

So, WordPress shows me a lot of the searches that people run that lead them to my site.  One has recently come up again and again.  “Cervical Endometriosis” and “Endometriosis on Cervix.”

Seeing as I’ve never touched up on that particular location, I figured I would today!

What are the symptoms? How are you diagnosed?  What’s the treatment?

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Endometriosis & Wine

| Bloomin' Uterus
A spilling glass of red wine

So, we’ve all heard that a glass of wine can be good for you.  Healthy, actually.  Then we’ve all heard that it can be harmful.  Throw in the mix that some of us suffer from Endometriosis…and that many people try to cut alcohol out of their lifestyle to prevent flare-ups and symptoms.  Alcohol is not only harmful to our bodies and livers, but contains a lot of sugar, as well as wreaks havoc on our system.  But I like me some vino!

Cutting out alcohol all together is likely your safest bet if you’re wanting to live cleaner and healthier.  The liver filters out toxins, as well as estrogen, from the body.  As you may have read elsewhere, Endometriosis is an estrogen-fed and reliant disease.  If our livers cannot properly filter out estrogen, we are simply empowering our illness.  Alcohol is also high in sugar…and we’ve previously discussed how sugar may increase your Endometriosis pain and flare-ups.  Studies have shown that alcohol may also increase estrogen levels due to phytoestrogens in alcohol…plant estrogens that  mimic human estrogen (…wait…I didn’t know that. Crap.)

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Share Your Story : Alexandra

| Bloomin' Uterus
Woman with brown hair wearing a shirt that reads "Fight like a (yellow ribbon) girl."

Alexandra is a fellow blogger out of Brisbane, Australia.  Today she share’s her Endometriosis journey with us.  She was diagnosed when she was 20, and now five years later here she goes, starting us out with a *bang*:

Alexandra’s Journey: “Uterus.” There, I said it! Uterus! Periods. Ovaries. Fallopian Tubes. Bleeding. Tampon. Rectum. Hormones. Bladder. Cervix. Menstruation. Vagina. Discharge. Pelvis. Pads. Endometriosis. Awkward.

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