Adenomyosis – Day 16

28-Day Personal Challenge

The Vague Description of Adenomyosis

Adenomyosis is when the muscle of the uterus breaks through the uterine wall. That’s the basic gist of it.

Adenomyosis is curable with a hysterectomy. An extreme cure, but one none-the-less. Menopause can cure the issue, too, if you can hold out long enough. There are procedures and other options you can try to alleviate the symptoms, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.

Why Does Adenomyosis Happen?

No one really knows. There is speculation that maybe a previous surgery or injury to the uterus or a prior cesarean section can be the cause. There’s speculation that it’s present from birth or that previous childbirth can be a cause. There’s just a whole of guessing.

Which basically means, they’re trying to figure it out, they’re doing the scientific hypothesis and making a suggestion, seeing how those ideas play out over time, and taking notes. They are trying, but answers don’t happen overnight. And, until there is one definitive thing, they can’t claim they know for certain what causes it.

That’s the cruddy part of science. If you want accurate answers you have to take a lot of time to work the hypothesis and see if the end answer approves or disproves the original hypothesis. And if the hypothesis was disproven, then the whole thing starts over again.

How Is It Detected or Confirmed?

If you are having issues in the female arena your first step is to talk with your doctor. My primary doctor sent me to a gynecologist who took the time to listen to me. We tried a few things that didn’t work and then she sent me for tests: pelvis ultrasound, complete and transvaginal.

That’s where they found the markers for the adenomyosis. From what I understand the two best ways to get a diagnosis are from a transvaginal ultrasound and/or an MRI. However, the definitive method is through a biopsy after a hysterectomy.

Oddly, some people don’t even know they have adenomyosis. They go through life symptom-free until they have a hysterectomy and a biopsy shows they have it. The only thing they don’t cover is why someone would have a hysterectomy for no reason. So if something is going on to warrant a hysterectomy, are they sure that the adenomyosis didn’t play some role?

If You Have Adenomyosis – You’re Not Alone

Adenomyosis sucks. It’s incredibly painful and it interferes with even the most mundane tasks on our to-do lists. You’re not alone. I’ve included a link here to a site I discovered. This is a recent discovery so I don’t feel I can review it honestly, yet. I haven’t had the time to browse all the information, I just wanted to share because I was so happy to find this site: Adenomyosis Advice Association. I believe they have a FaceBook group as well.

If you will be having a hysterectomy there’s a site with a whole slew of information: HysterSisters.

Also, everyone’s adenomyosis presents differently. We have some things that are the same, but one person’s case will not always be the same as another’s.

A Word of Caution

Diagnosing Adenomyosis is difficult. Most doctors don’t send you off to a test that is going to cost you a chunk of change until they’ve tried the most obvious methods of treatment first. And they are trying to treat the most common reasons first.

It’s like taking your car to the mechanic because it won’t start. They’re going to check the cheapest and most common reasons first: does it have gas, is the battery dead before they jump into checking things that will cost more such as the starter, alternator, etc.

The reason I point this out is that I get discouraged when people bash doctors for not finding a diagnosis or treatment instantly. There’s a lot of symptoms that overlap with other diseases, infections, etc… Some symptoms may get you routed to a gastroenterologist. The doctor is going to try to solve the most common thing for whatever your main symptom is.

It’s frustrating, it’s time-consuming. Work with your doctor(s). Hang in there.

(((Hugs))) to all who suffer.

I hope one of the links above will be helpful. If you have information on other sites I would greatly appreciate it if you shared them here.

Previous 28-Day Personal Challenge Posts

• Day 1
• 2- Finding Focus
• 3 – Distraction-Free Writing Tips
• 4 – My Morning Routine
• 5 – Random Lesson
• 6 – Benefits of Basics
• 7 – Favorite YouTube Channels
• 8 – He Doesn’t Bite
• 9 – Now What Are You Going To Do?
• 10 – Challenge Check-In
• 11 – The Struggle
• 12 – Revisit Previous Material
• 13 – Diet and Exercise Basics
• 14 – ReTool the Plan
• 15 – Favorite Ways to DeStress