The Background:
Around the beginning of the calendar year, maybe a month or so before, I started having mild pain on my lower right ab. Usually it wasn't all that bothersome, but it was getting to the point where I was feeling at least a little bit of pain every day. Then I woke up one morning in February and couldn't stand or walk the pain was so bad. I took some Aleve and it started to get bearable. My PCP's resident examined me and ran a urine culture. They decided it was a UTI and I did a round of antibiotics. A day later I got my period. A week or so later I went to my gynecologist and the pain hadn't improved at all. She did an exam and another urine and yeast test. She determined it was a deep tissue infection and gave me another round of antibiotics (urine tests came back positive for bacteria both times, yeast test negative both times). She suggested I get a transvaginal ultrasound just in case. My pain was slowly getting less, but still present all day every day. Worse in the evening and after exercise. Did the utlrasound and the pain increased again. The ultrasound showed two small cysts (2cm each) on my left ovary and that my right ovary is adhered to my uterus with scar tissue. She referred me to an endo specialist. He reviewed the ultrasound and said it sounds like endo, but ultrasounds are only 50% accurate in identifying a true adhesion (yay?! maybe it's not adhered?!). I was given the options to do nothing (since my pain had backed off and was entirely manageable), or go for surgery. I've been told I'm not a great candidate for managing with medication because I went on Depo a while back and bled for a solid year. I've since been on a progesterone only BC with no problems. The pain was entirely gone for about 3 weeks and has started to come back. It's still in the same place, but is so mild it's more of a general annoyance than actual pain.
I'm 26 years old, married, no children, but definitely want to have kids one day. My periods have always been pretty normal although they can be long and tend to be heavy the first 2 days. I have lots of spotting in the days leading up to my period- sometimes as many as 4 days of spotting before a typical flow.
The Question:
Should I go ahead and do the lap, or try managing the condition and symptoms without it- trying another BC, diet changes, other thoughts?? The pain has been manageable, but will it get bad again? My main concern is the affect on my future fertility. I don't want things to get so bad they cause me to be infertile, but from what I've read, the endo will almost certainly come back again anyway. Is this true? The surgeon said there is low probability of the endo returning after it's been cut out...
I'm just scared of making the wrong decision...
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and suggestions. My apologies for such a loooong post
:)