I ended up calling my doctors office the next day and making them look up my charts and spell Adenomyosis for me. It was then that I began my research on Adenomyosis and what it actually was. Thats when I began to find out that it was a little more serious than my doctor made it out to be.
NOVEMBER 1999: After being on the Depo Provera shot for a while (3 months or so) I moved to Southern California. Once I got to California I started to get a severe pain in my left ovary. I had to find a doctor that could maybe help with the pain. It was a sharp stabbing pain that made it hard to walk or even ride in the car. The doctor I found was in Glendale California at the Glendale Adventist Hospital. I came in and he listened to my story about my surgery and then the pain that I was having. He didn't even beleive that Adenomyosis was a possibiblty because I was so young. He began to tell me that he had only seen Adenomyosis in women that had allready had children. Not in women who were so young like me.
The doctor ended up doing a transvaginal ultrasound finding a little fluid on my left ovary. He figured that it was just a cyst that had popped and on it's way to healing. Luckily it wasn't serious! While he was in there he also looked at my uterus and said that it had some discoloration but was a normal size... so I didn't have Adenomyosis. I don't know if he expected to find my uterus the size of a watermelon or something, but doctors have told me that since I was so young (20) the disease is probobly in the beginning stages. I walked out of the office very disappointed in the medical profession.
I stayed on the Depo Provera shot for about six months and eventually noticed the bad side effects starting to occur. Though my cycle had stopped and the pain was almost gone, I had other things to worry about. After every shot of Depo Prevera I was having hot flashes and feeling light headed. My moods were also getting to be a little more dramatic. Sometimes I felt ok, but then there were other times when I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, or I just wanted to throw and break things. I also noticed a big weight gain of 60 or so pounds that came out of nowhere. I started to really hate my body when I got streach marks on my tummy, breasts and arms from gaining the weight so fast. Battle scars are what I call them these days. To this day the strangest and worst side effect that I have expericed was my breasts going from a 36 C to a 36 D, and I began to lactate. My body actually thought I was pregnant, and I wasn't.
JANUARY 2000: I decided that it was finally time to find another opinion. I couldn't find anywhere that it was a side effect of the Depo to have breast milk. I went back to Oregon for a few months and saw the doctor who did my moms surgery for Endometriosis. He agreed that the Depo wasn't doing well with my body and suggested that I discontinue use of it. He did a test and found that my prolactin levels were normal, and it really was the Depo causing my breasts to produce milk.(One of those side effects not listed as a Depo side effect.) ( I would later come to learn that there were a lot of side effects not listed)
The doctor agreed that if the Depo wasn't working for me, than the Lupron or Danazol shots weren't going to be an option. He suggested I go on a drug called Synarel that I would inhale through my nose every 12 hours and it would effect my pituitary gland causing my ovaries to shut off. He told me that it would be good because the drug would be cleared out of my system every 12 hours unlike the Depo Provera shot that could stay in my body for over a year even after I stop the shots. I agreed to Synarel because I figured that it was my last hope.
When I went to the pharmacy the Synarel came out of be about $185.00 and thats with my 50% discount from my medical insurance. I didn't have that kind of money, so I thought twice about it, and decided to do some research on Synarel first.
I discovered that Synarel wasn't much different than the rest of the drugs that make your body go into premature menopause. I just did't want my body to go through what a 75 year old woman would at the age of 21. I decided against the Synarel..even though my doctor thought I should try it. I decided to go back on birth control pills with progesterone and just wait for the pain to return.
MAY 2000: It has been quite a few months since I went off the Depo. in Jaunary I finally had my fist period in quite a long time, and I must admit that it wasn't a day in the park. I've slowly been feeling the pain coming back, but knowing there is little I can do, I just try to live with it.I've been spending a lot of days in bed or in a hot bath. Pain killers such as advil don't even touch the pain. I'm trying to make a decision about what I should do. It's hard to decide on a hysterectomy when I really would like children someday. Yet I also want to live a normal active life of a 21 year old, and not spend my days in bed. It's a decision that I never imagined I would have to make. Being a woman and being able to have children is something I thought I would always have the choice to do.
