“I feel like someone opened an umbrella in my bladder,” one woman from Wisconsin wrote vividly in a letter to me. “I’ve been to a urologist five times and he gives me antibiotics, but nothing helps. For five or six days a month, all I do is go to the bathroom. It’s worse when I have my period. Then I have blood in my urine, on top of all the pain. What’s really wrong with me?
Many women share Peggy’s problem. They come to their doctors complaining of bladder pain, or of the sensation of needing to urinate frequently. Many of these women are suffering from endometriosis, but they are diagnosed as having bladder infections unrelated to the “career woman’s disease.” Endometrial tissue can implant itself on the bladder and find its way to the kidneys, where it may become a cause of future problems. The intravenous pyelogram (IVP), which is a radiographic visualization of the kidneys, can offer some clues.
In this test, dye is injected into a vein and the dye travels to the kidneys. Under X ray, these outlined organs are picked up Cases exist in which endometriosis has invaded the kidney and leaves telltale indentations. However, even these indentations do not always constitute a diagnosis of endometriosis. A biopsy of tissue around the kidney it required in order to make a definitive evaluation.
Cystoscopy is another technique used to explore urinary tract dysfunction. It employs an instrument called the cystoscope, which is inserted into the urethra, making it possible to view the bladder. As with the laparoscope, the cystoscope has a built-in light source that facilitates viewing (or photographing the area) and is so constructed that doctors may take tissue biopsies at the same time.
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