So this morning I got to go to Sh! with one of my colleagues. You know

your job is good when part of it is buying sex toys at 10 o'clock in the

morning. Turns out we have enough toys already in the office, but we went

anyway and got a blindfold and some Thai beads, and a lot of samples of

different types of lubes. And while we were there we got talking to the

owner about videos etc - they don't have a licence to sell R18 material,

but apparently they get a lot of enquiries about buying porn. Personally

I thought they wouldn't be interested in produced-by-men-for-men

'lesbian' porn, but the owner asked for some samples, so maybe they are.

Anyhow, I went to the gynae yesterday. Mr Stafford recognised me from

when I had my snip two years ago, which was nice. He asked me if I'd had

any regrets, and seemed pretty pleased when I told him I was still

thrilled with it and that it was the bst decision I've ever made.

So, I'm describing my symptoms etc and saying that all the doctors I've

seen so far aren't 100% sure I have endometriosis. And then he tells me

that he already knows I have endometriosis, because when he was

sterilising me he'd observed some patches of endo. Uh, okay... He asks if

I was told, and I say no, I wasn't, and he apologises profusely. I guess

they didn't tell me because I wasn't having particularly bad periods back

then, because I'd only recently come off the pill. So Mr Stafford reckons

that in the 2.5 years since then the patches have grown and are now

causing me trouble.

At this point I suppose I should rant about lacking care standards in the

NHS, but to be honest I don't really care. At least the fact that they

already know means I won't have to have an exploratory laparoscopy. And

the Chelsea & Westminster is, as a whole, a good hospital. I'm lucky to be

able to get treatment there and not one of the ropier London ones.

Then Mr Stafford started talking about treatment options, and drops a

second mini-bombshell: would I like a hysterectomy? Yikes! There was

me thinking a hysterectomy is a near-impossible thing for a 20-something

woman to get, and here's a guy just offering me one on a plate.

I don't want a hysterectomy, though. Firstly, I can't afford the 4-week++

recovery time, in terms of work; secondly, I've heard bad things about

hysterectomies ruining your sex life (even when they leave your ovaries);

thirdly, I don't actually mind having my period so much, and it's major

bloody surgery!!

So he offered me two other options: hormones to stop my periods, or laser

treatment. I don't want hormones because I was so badly affected by the

pill, so laser ablation it is. I'm now on the waiting list for a

laparoscopy and endometrial ablation where necessary. Basically, they're

going to laser away any excess endometrial tissue, which should (in

theory) make my periods lighter and less bothersome.

I've heard of ablation before, but I don't know much about it. Apparently

I'll only be off work for a week (they told me to take a week when I was

snipped, but I only took 3 days, so I doubt I'll be taking a week this

time). Scary prospect, but at least now I'm on the way to some sort of resolution. And so quickly!!!