Laparoscopy for endometriosis

Colleen0516 · June 2016

Hi everyone,
My surgery is set for June 28th.
I forgot to ask my doctor how long the surgery takes? I know it obviously varies, but I'm looking for a general time frame.
If you have had the surgery, how long were you under for? And how long did it take for you to recover?

Thank you!

ssandberg · June 2016

I had laparoscopy surgery about a year ago. They removed a blocked fallopian tube, and cleaned out some endo. The surgery took about an hour, and I think I came out of the anesthesia maybe 30 mins after.

If I remember right, my surgery was on a Wednesday and I took Thursday/Friday off of work completely. I really didn't leave the couch. I went "back to work" Monday, but needed to work from home all week. I won't lie, I found the recovery process very hard for the first few days. Getting up, sneezing, laughing --- all hurt really bad. But within a week the worst was over.

They gave me pain meds, and stool softener (tmi) for afterwards. The good news? Totally worth it. I'm now 14 weeks pregnant with twins!

pianofanatic · June 2016

I don't remember how long my surgery was but it went longer than expected because they found my condition to be severe. I think it will depend on what they find for you. I went home late at night because they kept me there to make sure I could pee and could eat something.

My recovery was as PP just mentioned. It hurt badly for 3 days and beyond that I felt very weak and very sore for another week or two. The pain meds hardly touched the pain during the first 3 days.

It is worth it though. I had an IVF cycle right after my lap and got pregnant. Period pain for me was much lighter than before the lap.

ChristinaV2015 · June 2016

Oh @Colleen0516 I'm so sorry to see that you are still on here waiting for your baby! I took a few months off from the boards and when I didn't see you when I came back, I truly hope you had your BFP!

As for the surgery, I just had my lap done about a month ago. I was only under for about 90 minutes and I would say that I felt bad for the first 3 days but I wasn't bed ridden or anything, was still up and down, moving around.

Who is doing your surgery? My gyno did mine bc I'm planning on leaving our doctor. Are they only looking for endo?

Colleen0516 · June 2016

Thank you everyone!

@ChristinaV2015 HI! i took a while off the boards too... I felt like a broken record, joining IVF group after group with no success. I left our doctor. I loved the ladies there, but hated the course of medicine. He did nothing to help me, he only kept prescribing med's and doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result (that never happened).

I got consultations from other doctors and I am now going to a place in Garden City. I see Dr. Kang; she is AMAZING- a godsend. She thought that i should have had the surgery MONTHS ago (Dr. Pena wouldn't do it, and made me feel stupid for thinking I needed it.)
So I am set up for June 28th. Butttttt there is a small hiccup- maybe a good one, maybe a bad one, not sure yet.
I got my period on Wednesday (after a round of IUI). Went in for blood to ensure its negative and my HCG came back at 16. Very low for where i was in my cycle. They think its another chemical pregnancy

I will know more today. Praying the numbers went up dramatically and it was late implantation. But, don't want to get my hopes up too high.

How are you doing?? Had the surgery, and now your just trying naturally? or did you do another round in the meantime while you look to switch?
If you want the number of my new doctor, i HIGHLY recommend her. Private message me and ill give you her number and mine, in case you want to chat.

freudianmamma · June 2016

Hi Ladies! I just had my laproscopic surgery on Friday, June 3rd. I was out for about an hour as the Dr. removed 10 "spots of endo" he said and drained the endometrioma in my left ovary. I was actually expecting much worse than how I feel right now after reading horror story posts online. I started my IVF stim meds Monday.

It was a little scary leading up to the surgery I can't lie. It was my first surgical procedure in a hospital and I found the whole getting IV fluids in my arm and waiting there as 10 people shuffled in and out asking me my name and birth date pretty anxiety provoking. But I'm anxious in general anyways. Luckily the hospital had this TV station that played peaceful music and showed pretty pictures of nature so I tried to breathe deeply and wait for the anesthesia to kick in.

I woke up about an hour after the procedure. I was out of it and my husband was hoping for me to be silly and loopy. Instead he got angry and b5tchy! I can't really remember much of waking up and eating my graham crackers in the recovery room. I went home and sleeping was a little hard for me the first night. I had shoulder pain which the Dr. explained was actually stomach pain but the nerve goes to your shoulder? I took my Vicadin and Motrin alternating them every 2 hours. I was able to go to a class the next day actually. Overall, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I am less than a week out and feel tired but pretty much normal. I think it depends on what you are having done in there. Mine does not sound like it was that extensive.

JESSABER0414 · June 2016

I starting to contemplate this surgery, since starting cramping after BD during the 2ww and feeling bowel cramping too. Felt like it could be a sign of endometriosis. No other reason to suspect it other than this is 6th try with letrozole and will be third iui. Can anyone tell me that they really didn't think it was there and had surgery which found endo and it worked and they got a bfp? I'm a nurse, so I think I'm thinking too hard and my RE wants me to be the one to decide if it's truly bothering me.

JamieH2000 · June 2016

Hi All, just thought I would share my experience since I just got home from the hospital! My surgery only took an hour, but had a bit of a rough recovery with nausea and was there for around 4-5 hrs after. My RE was expecting to find more ahesions from previous surgeries but actually just found mild endo. Tubes and uterus looked good, so overall still relatively unexplained. I'm pretty sure our next step with be IVF (doing to a lifetime insurance limit), but my RE said it may be worth doing three months of Lupron before IVF to suppress the endo because endo can decrease implantation. I reallyyyy don't want to wait any longer... But wondering if my endo has been causing implantation issues since I seem to ovulate just fine and there is no other reason it's not working. Any thoughts? Anyone that has done Lupron before IVF?

Good luck to everyone out there getting a lap! Not fun, but it was worth it to me to get more answers even tho we will prob end up with IVF anyways.

khochanadel · June 2016

I did the lap surgery last March. They found stage 4 endometriosis so the surgery took far longer than expected. I want to say it took me about a week to feel close to normal again. I had the shoulder pain from the belly gas and awful throat pain from having to be intubated.

They went in to remove a tube and couldn't even do it because my endo was so severe. It was a pretty low point for us - I was so incapacitated by the surgery DH lost it a bit. Up to that point we thought we'd be able to conceive naturally if my bad tube was shut down, but after the surgery was told Ivf was our only option.

We got a bfp our first cycle (we had to do an FET due to OHSS), and our single embryo turned into 2 identical twin babies who arrived 8 weeks ago. Good luck, lady! The surgery is the suck, but hopefully soon you'll be waking up every 2 hours to a screaming baby also, and the surgery will just be a bad memory.

JamieH2000 · June 2016

Thanks for sharing your success story! It gives me a lot of hope! Can I ask if you did Lupron suppression before your FET? I want the best chance at implantation during IVF but I'm not convinced it's worth the 3+months delay

KidShrink · June 2016

@Colleen0516: I'm so sorry you're still waiting for your BFP

What ended up happening with your low beta? I hope it turned out to be the real deal. If not, I'd strongly encourage you to get the lap. My RE had told me maybe 40 min...turned out things were way worse than anticipated, and the surgery lasted 2.5hrs (and I had fairly mild symptoms). BUT I got pregnant the very next cycle (with IUI) and our little guy turned 6 weeks yesterday. I also recuperated fairly well. I had the surgery on a Sunday, and I went to a wedding the following Saturday. I was limited in my dancing, but people wouldn't have guessed if I didn't say anything.

@JamieH2000: I personally never took Lupron, but a good friend of mine who had a lap in January went on Lupron to calm everything down (things were really bad in her case). She took it for a month, and has since sworn to never put anything else in her body. She didn't have endo pain, but she had every other side effects (with the joint pain being particularly bad). It seems from the research we've done that there's some really positive or really negative stories about Lupron...not too many people in between. Best of luck in making your decision!

Colleen0516 · June 2016

@KidShrink I'm so happy for you! I love hearing success stories like yours! What's your son's name?

if I end up miscarrying, then I am 100% getting the surgery. Im set for June 28, but that all depends on what happens with me now.

KidShrink · June 2016

@Colleen0516: I'm going to have my FX this is a sticky one and then not only do you get your ling awaited baby, but you also get to avoid surgery!

Our little guy is Eliott

He's the cutest and sweetest! We're very thankful he's been such an awesome baby because I ended up with some very significant complications after the delivery which kept me in the hospital for almost a month. You'd think that life wouldn't have thrown us such a crazy curveball after two years of infertility when we could finally hold our little miracle, but that's just not
how things played out for us. He may now be our one and only, so I'm trying even more to enjoy every moment.

JamieH2000 · June 2016

Kidshrink- thanks for the info! I'm going to get a second opinion before I do anything I think. I'm hoping I can get a consultation at the new clinic I want to try in the next few weeks

freudianmamma · June 2016

@KidShrink Wow your story is intense! I am so sorry you had to go through all of that! So happy that you were able to conceive your little Elliot in the end

Want a personalized experience?

Laparoscopy for endometriosis

Re: Laparoscopy for endometriosis

Choose Another Board

Search Boards