Finally found a doctor who actually wants to treat me!

I have a family history of endo, adeno and fibroids. Pretty much every woman I’m related to has had a lap or hysterectomy. I started my period at 12 and was fine until I was about 15. I started experiencing horrible cramps that would immobilize me. I would take handfuls of ibuprofen to help and it wouldn’t touch the pain at all. I also started experiencing heavy bleeding. Now I’m 20 and the pain has progressed to be a pretty much daily thing. On my period I bleed through a super tampon in 30 minutes. I have a heavy, painful pelvis along with hot, stabbing pain in my ovaries. It feels like I’m carrying around with a bowling ball at the top of my cervix. I also experience pain that wraps around my hips and pain and shoots down to my feet. I’ve bounced from different obgyns and even urologists and they all told me to take ibuprofen, use a heating pad and take birth control. They never once brought up endo, I always had to and it got swept aside. My mom advocates for me and comes with me to all my appointments because she’s been through endo and adeno. We started getting really tired of not getting help. The past two weeks my pain has been extremely debilitating. I’m constantly distracting by shooting pains and tugging, snapping and ripping sensations on my ovaries which I think may be endometriomas or adhesions. I decided to call one more obgyn office and met with Dr. Culver in Charlottesville, VA. I felt like I was taking a gamble but he listened to me!! And the moment I explained my symptoms he asked me if I had ever heard of endometriosis. No one has said that before! He explained all my options and didn’t exclude surgery which is a first. Usually doctors tell me I’m too young to have a lap. He diagnosed me with endometriosis through exclusion. He also didn’t try to force an IUD on me which most doctors have and have ignored my fear of the pain. I didn’t even have to say it, he just knew that it would be painful for me. We decided on starting yaz and taking it consistently to skip bleeding. I felt comfortable choosing birth control with him this time because he explained everything to me. I have an ultrasound in a little less than a month to see if my ovarian pain is endometriomas and after that we’re gonna talk about getting me into seeing an endometriosis specialist for surgery. I feel so relieved! My mom and I were so pleasantly surprised and I got home and cried tears of joy. And the sad thing is, he was doing the bare minimum of what a doctor should be doing but after all of my bad experiences, that’s all it took! I’m not so scared of my pain now that I know someone has my back. Sending you all love!