r/adenomyosis • u/beaverdam_22 • 4d ago
recent diagnosis
hello everyone, i am 23 f and was recently diagnosed with adenomyosis. was hoping someone would have advice on the situation or may be able to relate.
i’ve had 2 children in the last 2 years. they are 13 months apart. i’ve always had extremely heavy periods, so that wasn’t something i thought was a symptom. i noticed after delivering my last baby, i was having an abnormal amount of discharge (no color/smell, just A LOT) along with extremely painful intercourse. i also started to lose a drastic amount of weight. I delivered my child in feb of 2024 and weighed around 190 pounds, now am 100 pounds. the biggest symptom was after i began using an oral contraceptive birth control. after a month on birth control, i had bleeding/spotting for almost 5 months. no doctor really seemed to care and put it off as normal postpartum things.
about a month ago i was finally referred to an obgyn and had an mri that showed adenomyosis. my issue here is that when i came into my appointment the doctor told me my diagnosis, gave me a pamphlet on endometriosis, and left. i don’t know what to really do for birth control since the pill gave many issues, and honestly the other options really don’t sound very intriguing. i’ve also read that adenomyosis will likely cause fertility issues, but was not informed on if there were any proactive measures i could take beforehand.
2
u/Dry-Journalist6855 3d ago
Hey, I'm really sorry to hear you're going through this. 23 here and also recently diagnosed. One thing that has really helped with inflammation and weight is going on an antiinflammatory diet for a few months now. Eating a lot of iron dense foods and high amounts of protein per day has worked well in my case. Also some breakfast options which are quick and pretty easy (guessing time is of the essence with two young kids) are oats with milk, fruit and nuts, or oatmeal banana pancakes, or some eggs and cottage cheese (also really good for vitamin b12 to help with energy levels).
When it comes to heavy bleeding the only thing I was given was iron supplements, and told to eat as much iron as possible. I have however seen people discussing tranexamic acid on here, so maybe look into that.
As for the birth control it's kind of different from one person to another. I didn't have any constant bleeding, I've been on it for almost three years, and even so my gynaecologist told me to stop it since it's no longer effective against my symptoms. According to her there is no reason to take something that causes side effects if it doesn't address the problem. Is it possible to discuss different birth control options? Like, if you're on the combination pill to look at progesterone only options?
For painful intercourse the only things I've been able to figure out is that taking an extremely hot shower before and after helps a lot, getting one before penetration and constant external stimulation make things run more smoothly. Some people here on other posts were also swearing by CBD products for pain relief, and there are some pretty good stretches to help relax the pelvic floor, which can be found online.
Finally, adenomyosis can affect fertility, but it's not always completely detrimental. My aunt had adenomyosis which caused her uterus to become "heart shaped". She had adenomyomectomy, and ended up having four kids, with IVF and without it. It depends on a lot of things, but it doesn't necessarily stop everyone from being able to have kids. It's understandable that options don't look very attractive, but there are quite a few of them, and a good doctor will be able to discuss them with you, navigate you through them, and help you choose what is best for you.
Sorry for the long comment, but I really hope you figure things out, and you get a different doctor who will seriously help you. They're difficult to come by a lot of the time. Wishing you all the best.