In which I introduce myself

Fair warning: everything on this blog is going to be quite personal, and I will discuss medical procedures, conception, and periods.  If you're at all squeamish or simply not interested, my generic personal blog is over here.  Alternatively, have some cute.


Still here? Right.  I'm Jen, and I have endometriosis.  Let's get that out of the way first, shall we?

Endometriosis is so little talked about that my browser dictionary says I've spelled it wrong.  This is probably because it's related to periods.  Nice Girls don't talk about periods.  Endometriosis is a medical condition in which the cells that normally grow in the lining of my uterus grow in other parts of my abdominal cavity, such as my ovaries, bowel, and so on.  Unfortunately, these misplaced cells still react to hormone changes like their sisters in my uterus - they engorge through my cycle, and then try to bleed away when I get my period.  But they're in the wrong place to do that, so they create little pockets called adhesions where they grow and bleed and grow and bleed.  This is understandably quite painful.  I get agonising cramps and pain around my period, but also when I'm ovulating, and at other, seemingly-random times throughout my cycle.  I'm going to abbreviate it to "endo" from now on because it's much easier to type.

I was first diagnosed with suspected endo at the end of 2005, however, I've had it my whole life.  I've always had painful, heavy periods, but I just thought that was normal.  Apparently it is not normal to suffer from crippling pain each time you get a period.  Who'd have thunk?  After my GP suggested I had endo, I was referred to an obstetrician/gynaecologist. Dr Swift.  Dr Swift is well-known on the Gold Coast as an endo specialist.  He did an ultrasound, and some poking and prodding, and declared that he didn't actually think I had endo, but he wanted to do a laparoscopy to be sure.  He though the laparoscopy would take about an hour.  It ended up taking about four hours and I had to stay in overnight.  Afterwards he said it was some of the worst endo he had seen.

That was 5 years ago, on Valentine's Day 2006.  My endo pain went away...for a little while.  But it's gradually gotten worse and worse, until I'm back at the level I was before surgery.  Even worse, I have not managed to fall pregnant in that time.  I have endometriosis-associated infertility, which is a fancy way of saying "women with endo are more likely to have trouble with their fertility, but we have no freaking idea why".  After 5 years of trying, we're way past the point where we should be looking at some form of intervention, so we're getting the ball rolling on that now.  Hence, this blog.

So, that's me.  I'll be discussing my journey through endo treatment and fertility treatment, whatever we decide.  Blogging may be sporadic, and will almost certainly be more personal than my parents would be comfortable with...But it's also a kind of therapy for me, getting it all out, you know?

Oh, one final thing, in case you were wondering...I called this blog "Moments of Irrationality" because when I get hormonally-imbalanced I get irrational.  Simple as that!