Yuck!!!! help?!?!? -

okay.. my soon-to-be sister-in-law... has been telling me some crazy stuff... and she wants me to ask you a question!! Okay, well, she started getting quot;sickquot;. She went to the dr. a hundred times.. and they finallly say she has I.C. (with chances of endo) well, to try and get rid of the endo symptoms.. she was put on yaz. then.. she started getting treatments for I.C. this started with a hypertension(spelling??). then.. she was put on ???????? anyways.. she has told me that she has brown, smelling, discharge.. and first it was just around her monthly cycle and.. now she says it s pretty much all the time... anyone have any answers to what it could be?? or what could be causing it?!?! (she feels too embarrased to ask her doctor... and.. so.. i am the only one that knows)

Couple things... Endometriosis cannot be diagnosed without surgery, in which biopsies are taken for confirmation (and the disease is hopefully treated at the same time, if the doctor knows what s/he is doing). Giving her Yaz is just a means of suppressing some of the symptoms which may or may not be Endo temporarily. The gold standard for treatment and diagnosis is surgical intervention. Luckily, while there is no absolute cure for Endo, unfortunately, it _can_ be successfully treated through surgery. Endo and IC are known as quot;Evil Twins.quot; However, IC is a diagnosis of exclusion - meaning that other things (including Endo) must be ruled out. IC is typically confirmed once other things have been ruled out and petechial hemorrhages are diagnosed under cystoscopy. I point this out because they may be treating her for IC when in fact she has urogenital involvement from Endo and/or has no Endo but only IC. Make sense? It is important that she have confirmed diagnoses before treating them accordingly. IC is not always present in those with Endo, and vice versa. They are 2 separate, differently treated diagnoses. If her doctor is not willing or is otherwise unable to perform the necessary tests and surgery required to confirm or deny one or both diagnoses, she needs to find someone who will help her. That said - foul smelling discharge is a sign of infection, NOT Endo OR IC. That needs to be cultured and addressed sooner rather than later. She may be doing herself a grave disservice by being too embarrassed to talk to her doctor - in order for women to receive adequate standards of care, even in this day and age, unfortunately, they need to be empowered and take charge of their own health. If she is not comfortable discussing it with her physician, the only one she will ultimately hurt is herself. If she s not comfortable with him or her, she should find a new one with whom she feels she can frankly discuss such issues. I say this with the utmost of support and from the standpoint of someone who has quot;been there,quot; truly. Good luck to her and hope all turns out well.

Whatever it is, it definitely isn t normal. It may be a pelvic infection of some kind. She really needs to get to the doctor and get it checked out. If she s planning to have kids, that could interfere with fertility, among other things.