is the doc for reals?

TMI Alert. (Well, maybe not, but it may be a bit more than you care to know...) I figure that since I've determined that "this is year", I should start doing a little research to see what exactly I could be getting myself into.

Each month, for close to 14 years I've suffered severe cramps with my period. At a young age, my gynecologist put me on a birth control pill to help lessen the severity of the cramps. For a while, the birth control seemed to help and the pain was bearable however, about 4 years ago I started realizing that the pill really wasn't doing the trick anymore. My doctor prescribed a stronger pill (more expensive as well - health insurance didn't cover this pill) which also didn't provide me with the relief I hoped it would. The gynecologist had thought the cramps were a result of cysts on my ovaries - I had sonograms done, proving otherwise - and the term endometriosis was tossed around but nothing was ever conclusive.

Endometriosis (if you don't know) is a condition where the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus actually grows outside of the uterus. The body sheds the lining in the uterus each month during menstruation, but the tissue that grows outside of the uterus obviously is not shed and over time can cause issues if/when a woman tries to get pregnant.

I'm surely not ruling this out as a possible problem, though my fingers and toes are crossed that there is no problem and maybe I'm just a big cry baby with no tolerance for pain. When I say that I suffer from severe cramps though, I mean that I suffer from severe cramps. My cramps have been so extreme over the past 14 years that my mom used to give me a shot of brandy (a remedy her mother used to "cure" my mothers cramps) before going to school and I will often sip on a glass of rum/brandy/wine to take the edge off! My cramps have forced me to miss school/work at times, leave me in tears, curled in a painful ball in my bed for hours and cause me to pop advil every other hour. The cramping affects my lower back as well and not even a heating pad does the trick.

A few years ago at my annual, I again (as usual) brought up my issue with cramps. I was told that aside from the pill, surgery and an increase in Vitamin-C and iron (which I try to remember to take when I know my  monthly pal is due to arrive) that the only way to permanently lessen the pain was to get pregnant. My mother had mentioned this to me before - wishful thinking on her part, or so I thought! When my doctor spoke those words my jaw nearly hit the floor - I couldn't believe what I was hearing! (Side note: I was 22 when my doctor first mentioned this to me - so this wasn't as out of line as it might have been had I been younger!)

Since I hope to get pregnant in the next year, I decided to finally do some research on this to see if the doctor was for reals or was just pulling my leg to get out of finding another way to help me! Turns out there are many message boards and articles regarding this issue. I learned a few things in my research, that my gynecologist never really discussed with me and I'm sure I didn't learn in sex ed in middle school.

Severe uterine pain is called dysmenorrhea. There are two types, primary and secondary, primary being the common type and occurring in women who have not had children, usually disappearing after a full-term pregnancy, secondary being caused by a disease in the uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries (endometriosis, PID, uterine fibroid tumors).

Like I said, I'm hoping I'm just a wuss, and am just not capable of handling even a little bit of pain and my fingers are crossed that I don't suffer from secondary dysmenorrhea. I guess only time will tell and if we run into any issues we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For the time being, I want to continue to learn all I can to ensure that things go as smoothly as they possibly can... at least the things that are in my control.