IVP, FSH AND MENOPAUSE

[Guest guest]

Hello. I am also awaiting menopause. I am 45, and my mother and sister

started menopause at age 46. I would like to participate in a future

mifepristone study, and hope it will resolve my problems until " Miss

Minnie " arrives. My uterus is 22-plus week size, and I am anemic from

heavy bleeding. I really don't want to have surgery or embolization,

but I do not know if I can hold out.

I recently moved to a new area, and now have a new doctor. He

performed the FSH blood test on me. I have read that this test is not

a very accurate measure of the Follicle Stimulating Hormone, but the

doc says it is. They did the blood test on day three of my period.

Today I was told that my FSH number was 8. Very low. Certainly not

menopausal. Does anyone have any experience with this test? Have you

heard anything about its accuracy? The only perimenoupausal symptoms

that I seem to have are occasional bouts of heating up at night.

In the past, with my previous doctors, I had ultrasounds to check on

my ureters to see if the fibroids were impinging on them. According to

my former doc they were not. The fibroids have not grown much in the

last several years and I have not had problems other than heavy

bleeding. My new doc wants to do the IVP (pyleogram) test for the

ureters/kidneys just to make sure. He says this test is more accurate.

However, I am not interested in having this test, since I am not

having any problems. Does anyone know which is the standard test (IVP

or ultrasound)when fibroids are present?

Once in a while I will think: " why don't I just go ahead and have a

hysterectomy. " Just get it over with and move on. BUT...I really do

not want to go that route. Because of this reluctance I have been

accused (by a female doctor!) that I have an irrational emotional

attachment to my uterus. Well, your darn right I am attached! If

possible I want to live with all of the body parts I came into this

life with. One doctor had the nerve to ask if it was a " sexual

thing " that kept me from going the hysterectomy route. Well, it is

a lot of things, some so deeply wrapped up in my psyche that I

cannot provide words for them. In addition, some woman just have too

many problems after relinquishing that organ. But then again, the

cycle goes on, and I think that I cannot go on like this.

So here I continue around and around, and thus nowhere different.

I'd appreciate the sharing of thoughts, comments.

Kim