Doctor too busy for timely endometrial biopsy

Hello, @secretsquirrel,

I had a second incidence of post-menopausal bleeding in early December 2022 (had - endometrial biopsy in 12/21 following first instance of bleeding). That first biopsy was done in a GYN’s office. I have been followed for years by a midwife and she told me flat out that I needed a gyn to evaluate the post-menopausal bleeding when I called her. This was mid-pandemic. I had called all around my area to find anyone who would even answer the phone and this gyn (an almost two-hour drive away over snowy mountain roads) got me in a day later and did a trans-vaginal ultrasound followed by a biopsy right then. It was uncomfortable but quick and therefore tolerable. My sister had recommended that I take ibuprofen 1/2 hour beforehand, but I forgot to take it. I would suggest taking the ibuprofen before you go into the waiting room.

A year later, when the bleeding happened again, I returned there. This time she suggested a hysteroscopy to do the biopsy. I was pretty blasé about it, having felt reassured the year before. It took 6 weeks to get the hysteroscopy (biopsy) scheduled. I was too naive to consider whether this was too long. When the result came back 4 days later as positive for adenocarcinoma, I woke up. I had lost a sister to the same diagnosis 6 months previously, and have another sister who’d had the same diagnosis and successful surgery the year prior. I no longer wanted to wait. Even though I live in an area where there are at least three very reputable cancer centers within 1-3 hours’ drive, I couldn’t even get an appointment to meet with a GYN ONC for another month. I was frantic to get this out before it could metastasize. At that point I found Mayo Connect, and decided to click the button even though this would be a three hour drive to an airport, a three hour flight to Minneapolis and a 90 minute drive to Rochester. Someone called me back in three days and I had an opportunity to schedule my surgery a week after that. It felt like a massive undertaking, but my husband and I decided to do that instead of waiting. I had my surgery at Mayo on 2/22/23 (first pre-op eval appts I could get in my home state were on 2/14 and 3/6).

ALL this to say that I honor your knowing that you do not want to wait. Hearing statistics regarding how long is safe to “delay” (my word) surgery means little to me in the face of my unique but not uncommon circumstances.

I encourage you to keep exploring your options, even though it takes energy, time, patience within reasonable-impatience, persistence and more energy.

I so hope you can get the care you need in a timely manner, @secretsquirrel!

@Gynosaur