Page 55 - Prevention - USA (April 2020)

For years, not gynecologic,” says Dr. Millheiser.
Melissa “And the test for endometriosis requires
ENDOMETRIOSIS
Randazzo had surgery, which we try to avoid unless
AND POLYCYSTIC
extremely we think it’s absolutely necessary.”
painful periods. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is
OVARY SYNDROME
“Every month, another condition that often goes unde-
the pain was tected, usually because the diagnostic
so crippling, signs—physical symptoms (such as acne
I’d miss work for days at a time,” says the and hair on the face and body), blood-
32-year-old social worker in New York work evidence of elevated androgen
City. “My gynecologist would tell me, hormones, irregular or absent periods,
‘There’s nothing wrong; it’s just part of or ovaries that look abnormal on an
being a woman.’ ” It took seeing two other ultrasound—aren’t always assessed at
doctors for Melissa to be diagnosed with first. “Generally you have to have two of
endometriosis, a condition in which these criteria, but many patients have
the tissue that normally lines the inside normal labs and don’t have a typical
of the uterus grows outside of it.
Leah Millheiser, M.D., director of
the female sexual medicine program at
Stanford University School of Medicine,
says she often sees women like Melissa
who’ve gotten diagnoses that range from
IBS to depression. “When a woman has
pelvic pain, there can be causes that are

DAN SAELINGER/TRUNK ARCHIVE.