Medications

Reader’s Choice : Endometriosis & Bipolar Disorder

| Bloomin' Uterus
Drama masks

I was contacted by one of our readers who shall remain anonymous.  She suffers from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and Bipolar Disorder.  Her OBGYN suspects she has Endometriosis; however, she had to return to college out-of-state and wasn’t able to have her diagnostic surgery.  In the meantime, her physician is encouraging her to remain on birth control pills to suppress the possible Endo symptoms.  Her symptoms are worsening…

She had heard that there may be a link between Endometriosis and Bipolar Disorder, and that it may be difficult to treat both at the same time due to complications with the medications interacting with each other, or even cancelling the medicinal effects of the pills.

Continue reading →

Share Your Story : Kristina

| Bloomin' Uterus
flaming text that reads "my body has been through hell"

Kristina was 24-years-old when she was diagnosed with Endometriosis, after the birth of her beautiful daughter.  Nearly a decade later, she tells us her story…

Kristina’s Journey: I received my diagnosis weeks after having my daughter in 2009. Turns out I could have been dealing with this since I had started having cycles but none of my doctors thought to even test and I had no idea what Endo was until I got pregnant. After having beautiful Kara my period started like normal but the pain was so intense. I went to my OB and she had me try the pill first, but that didn’t help.  Then we tried Depo and that made it worse. In the mix of all this I also have been dealing with multiple hernia repairs so one could imagine my hell some months.

Continue reading →

Adenomyosis

| Bloomin' Uterus
The word Adenomyosis covered in little spots and lesions

April is Adenomyosis Awareness Month.  Ado-what-o?  A disease, similar to Endo; some say Ado is the cousin to Endometriosis.  And many people with Endo also suffer with Adenomyosis.  So, I figured I’d spread a bit of awareness of Ado during this month and learn something in the process.

A few folks who attended our Endo walk suffer also from Adeno.  And one who showed up to our last Endo support group meeting suffers from Ado (but not Endo).  It’s a term I’m beginning to hear a lot more about.  But, what is it?

Continue reading →

Share Your Story : Kelly

| Bloomin' Uterus
woman with glasses smiling

Kelly was 15 years old when she was diagnosed with Endometriosis.  Nearly a decade later, she shares her journey with us.

Kelly’s Journey: Hi! My name is Kelly; I was diagnosed with endometriosis while I was in high school at the age of 15. I had problems with my period but was too scared to tell my mom because I didn’t want to go to the gynecologist. Needless to say, she eventually found out and I was forced to go. My period would last a month at a time, then a week free, then it would be back. While this was happening, I was losing tons of blood so I would see my primary doctor to be put on iron pills because they didn’t know how or why I was losing so much blood. Like I said my mom found out and I was put on birth control which regulated my period.

Continue reading →

Share Your Story : Hailey

| Bloomin' Uterus
A husband, wife, and two sons standing in a doorway

Hailey lives in Okalahoma.  When she was 22 years old, she received her Endometriosis diagnosis.  Now, over a decade later, she offers some stellar words of advice!!

Hailey’s Journey: I am going to call this the short version because we all know too well that listing every ounce of our story would be more like a novel than a blog post! Looking back I think it’s something I have had issues with for much much longer than my diagnosis.

Continue reading →

Endometriosis & The Bowel

| Bloomin' Uterus
Diagram of human bowels

As you may know, Endometriosis is not limited to just your reproductive bits & pieces.  It can implant, grow, and fester in many places; the bowel included.  But what does that mean? How do you know if it’s on your bowel?  Today’s blog will go into that…Read on, dear Reader…read on.  Word of warning : I will be using words like fart and poop! Why dance around the subject with flowery words when I feel like I’m a giggly 12-year-old girl?

It is estimated that between 5-15% (and some even doctors guess it’s actually between 3-34%) of women with Endometriosis suffer from Endo on their bowels.  Bowel Endometriosis may affect the colon, the rectum, the large intestine, the small intestine, the colon, or the sigmoid colon.  The implants may be physically located on the bowels, or even just located adjacent to them in areas like the Pouch of Douglas, uterosacral ligaments, or rectovaginal septum. The close proximity of the inflamed and irritated lesions may be enough to induce bowel Endometriosis symptoms.  And these symptoms may also be caused by adhesions pulling or twisting the bowels.

Continue reading →

Peggy, Roy, & The Endo Inn

| Bloomin' Uterus
Husband and wife cutting a cake together
Peggy & Roy cutting their birthday cake –  July 2015

You may have heard about Peggy Santa Maria on CBS-TV, LA or read about her in the Contra Costa Times or various online blogs.  I bumped into the CBS-TV LA link, which was aired on their 5pm news on December 25, 2015, and just had to know more about her.  The e-mail address on their site didn’t work, so I reached out to my friend, Margaret, at The Vital Health Institute, who got us in touch.

If you don’t know about Peggy and her husband Roy, they host The Endo Inn.  The what?  As Roy says, “Stay at the Endo Inn while you have your Endo taken out.”  They have converted their guest bedroom into The Endo Inn, a room where a woman and her guest can stay while she recovers from surgery for her Endometriosis, free of charge and for several weeks, if needed.  This includes access to all of the house for cooking, doing laundry, entailing everything that covers “living,” and The Endo Inn becomes “their home.”  Roy and Peggy have been doing this since January 18, 2000.

More about The Endo Inn shortly…but right now I want to focus on the beautiful people behind it:  Peggy and Roy.  I had the pleasure of speaking with Peggy several days ago, spending over an hour on the phone with this purely delightful woman.

Continue reading →

Changing birth control pills

| Bloomin' Uterus
A white pill


So, here’s the news…

Thanks ObamaCare.  Due to changes in insurance coverage and expenses, my employer has changed my insurance plan.  It’s the same carrier, but the plan has altered slightly.  What does that mean for my coverage?

Thankfully, I still can see my same physicians, although my physician co-pays have all increased by about $10.  I’ve no clue how any medical procedures will be affected financially.  BUT what I do know : my insurance will no longer cover my Amethyst birth control.  Sure, it’s free.  Sure there’s all this legislation and praise about free birth control…but my insurance refuses to provide Amethyst anymore.

Continue reading →

Share your Story : Sarah

| Bloomin' Uterus

Sarah’s symptoms began when she was 13 years old…but her diagnosis not until she was 34! Why not? How is that possible?  It happens more than it should…curious? Read on, Dear Reader, read on.

Sarah’s Journey:  I don’t think I’ve had a single day where my female reproductive organs were active and NOT pissing me off. I got my period one day in summer when I was thirteen years old. And it just … didn’t stop. For the first year of my menstruating life, I bled for 25 days out of thirty. It was ridiculous, and led to me having anemia and needing fluids almost all the time. My well meaning GP at the time said my body was just “adjusting”.

Continue reading →