[leahbia_83008]

on september 20th of this year i had a laparoscopy for endometriosis & thus far, have not had any complications post surgery. i have the paragard iud for pregnancy prevention and began taking lo loestrin as recommended by my doctor to help control the heaviness of my periods and keep the endometriosis pain under control. my last period, and the first since my surgery, was on october 1st and lasted until october 5th. last night (october 12th) i experienced some spotting, but did not think anything of it so i just put a panty liner on & called it a night. well this afternoon (october 13th) i used the restroom at work and noticed i had started heavily bleeding like that of a normal period on the paragard. i have never experienced any spotting with birth control pills (i was on yaz, ortho lo & ortho novum in the past), so this is new and scary to me. i called my ob/gyn & he said to continue taking the pills as directed and if the bleeding does not stop within a week or if i bleed twice again next month to make an appointment. is this normal for the first month after laparoscopy and/or taking the birth control pill? any peace of mind would be appreciated. thanks.

[leahbia_83008]

i also wanted to add the "period" blood is dark red, almost black in color & very thick, if that helps at all.

[ItsASecret]

It is quite common to bleed after a laparoscopy, especially in that first month. Breakthrough bleeding also frequently happens when you start on birth control. Like the doctor said if it continues next month or the bleeding continues to be very heavy this second bleed then contact for another appointment. Heavy bleeding does not mean spotting, it means thick clots and lots of blood. Dark colors typically mean old blood, so leftover blood that did not get pushed out from your regular period at the beginning of the month. The old blood happens to all women so that is not as much of a concern, large volumes of heavy clots over a prolonged time are more of the concern.

[leahbia_83008]

also, i'm still having abdominal pain in my hips & lower groin similar to that of my endometriosis pain pre-laparoscopy. i'm not sure how long it takes for the body to heal after this kind of procedure. i did read online that there may still be some blood flow to the areas that were effected by the endo, so i'm not sure if that could be the cause of my pain. i felt great the first couple days after the operation but i'm starting to think it may have just been from the pain killers they gave me and not that i was actually beginning to feel better. i just don't know what to do, i've never been in this situation before . . .