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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book | |
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| Conventions Used in This Book | |
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| What You're Not to Read | |
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| Foolish Assumptions | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Endometriosis: What It Is and Isn't | |
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| Digging Deeper into Endometriosis | |
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| Treating Endometriosis | |
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| Living with Endometriosis | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Appendixes | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| Endometriosis: What It Is and Isn't | |
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| The Lowdown on Endometriosis: A Quick Run-Through | |
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| Defining Endometriosis | |
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| Figuring out why endometriosis moves | |
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| Understanding why endometriosis hurts | |
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| Going Public: Why Don't People Know About Endometriosis? | |
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| Endometriosis is a women's disease | |
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| Endometriosis symptoms are "all in your head" | |
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| Endometriosis is invisible until you have surgery | |
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| Endometriosis isn't glamorous | |
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| Who Gets Endometriosis? | |
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| Counting the women with endometriosis | |
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| Looking at age and endometriosis | |
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| Linking pregnancy and endometriosis | |
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| Calculating the Cost of Endometriosis | |
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| Eying the economic costs | |
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| Considering the diagnostic and treatment costs | |
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| Looking at the cost on relationships | |
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| Do You Have Endometriosis: A Self-Test | |
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| Suspecting Endometriosis: Defining the Symptoms | |
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| Considering the Most Common Symptoms of Endometriosis | |
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| Dealing with painful periods | |
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| Hurtin' for certain during sex | |
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| Feeling mid-cycle pain | |
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| Experiencing abnormal bleeding | |
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| Conceiving problems | |
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| Experiencing chronic pain | |
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| Facing autoimmune issues | |
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| Being tired all the time | |
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| Noting the Not-Quite-As-Common Symptoms of Endometriosis | |
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| Living with your bowels in an uproar | |
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| Recognizing urinary symptoms | |
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| Coping with respiratory symptoms | |
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| Minding endometriosis and the brain | |
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| Writing It Down: How a Diary Can Help | |
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| Recording symptoms (and everything else important) from month to month | |
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| Keeping track of your menstrual cycle | |
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| Rating your pain | |
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| Locating your pain | |
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| Homing in on your feelings | |
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| Plotting your energy levels | |
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| Listing your pain treatments - both the good and the bad | |
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| Endometriosis: A Quick Review of Biology | |
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| Getting Back to Basics: Bio 101 of Female Anatomy | |
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| The uterus: Your womb | |
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| The uterine ligaments: The stabilizers | |
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| The ovaries: Your egg producers | |
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| The fallopian tubes: Your conveyor belts | |
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| The vagina and cervix: The openings | |
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| Other important parts | |
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| Measuring How Endometriosis Affects Your Reproductive and Other Organs | |
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| Endometriosis and your fallopian tubes | |
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| Endometriosis and your ovaries | |
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| Endometriosis and your pelvic cavity | |
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| Endometriosis and your cervix and vagina | |
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| Determining What Causes Endometriosis | |
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| Speculating on How Endometriosis Develops: The Most Common Theories | |
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| Migrating out the tubes: Retrograde menstruation | |
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| Blaming Mom: Is endometriosis hereditary? | |
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| Exploring Other (Not-So-Common) Theories | |
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| Using tampons | |
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| Having a tubal ligation | |
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| Answering some of the unanswered questions: The metaplasia theory | |
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| Understanding your immune system's role in endometriosis | |
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| Meeting the immune cells | |
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| Exploring the autoimmune connection | |
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| The Mystery of Traveling Endometriosis | |
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| Hitching a ride in the lymphatic and vascular systems | |
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| Spreading endometriosis through surgery | |
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| Avoiding Endometriosis: Is It Possible? | |
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| Does pregnancy help prevent endometriosis? | |
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| Watching what you eat | |
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| Considering environmental factors | |
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| Digging Deeper into Endometriosis | |
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| Understanding Your Menstrual Cycle (And Its Relationship to Endometriosis) | |
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| Your Period and Endometriosis: Why Are They Connected? | |
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| Looking at a healthy cycle | |
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| Understanding how endometriosis affects your period | |
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| A Pain by Any Other Name Is Still a Pain, But Is It Endometriosis? | |
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| Identifying the pain | |
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| What causes the pain? | |
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| Regulating Your Menstrual Cycle to Reduce the Pain | |
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| Using medication | |
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| Considering surgery | |
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| Hello Menopause: Goodbye Endometriosis? | |
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| Looking Closer at How Endometriosis Also Affects Other Body Parts | |
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| What a Gas! Endometriosis and Your Intestines | |
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| Twisting through your intestines | |
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| Suspecting intestinal endometriosis | |
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| Diagnosing (and treating) intestinal endometriosis | |
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| Endometriosis and Your Urinary Tract: More Than Just Another Infection | |
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| Naming the main symptoms | |
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| Understanding a cystoscopy | |
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| Treating urinary tract endometriosis | |
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| Endometriosis in Your Lungs: Coughing, Chest Pain, and Breathing Problems | |
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| Endometriosis in the lining of the lung (pleura) | |
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| Endometriosis in the lung tissue (parenchyma) | |
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| Diagnosing thoracic endometriosis | |
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| Treating thoracic endometriosis | |
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| Endometriosis in Your Brain: Rare, but Possible | |
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| Endometriosis and Infertility: Having a Baby (Or Trying To) | |
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| Figuring Out Why Endometriosis Is a Major Cause of Infertility | |
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| A quick overview: The steps to pregnancy | |
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| Whose fertility is affected by endometriosis? | |
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| Endometriosis In, Around, and On Your Ovaries | |
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| Understanding the link between endometriosis and egg development | |
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| Processing how endometriosis destroys ovarian tissue | |
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| Looking at luteinized unruptured follicle syndrome (LUF) | |
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| Interfering with a Good Uterine Environment | |
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| Checking out other hormonal problems: Luteal phase defect | |
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| Noting the chemical effects of endometriosis | |
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| Evaluating enzyme abnormalities | |
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| Messing with Your Fallopian Tubes | |
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| Adhesions tangle your fallopian tubes | |
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| Blocked tubes can cause ectopic pregnancy | |
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| Partially blocking tubes are bad too | |
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| Diagnosing Infertility Caused by Endometriosis | |
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| Seeing an infertility specialist | |
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| Drawing and testing blood | |
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| Debating the endometrial biopsy | |
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| Having a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) | |
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| Opting for a sonohysterogram | |
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| Doing a hysteroscopy | |
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| Probing with ultrasounds | |
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| Starting with Simple Treatments | |
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| Ovulation Induction (OI) | |
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| Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) | |
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| Progesterone supplements | |
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| Taking the Next Step: Surgery to Treat Infertility | |
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| Removing adhesions | |
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| Taking out endometrial implants or not? | |
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| Going for the Big Guns: Is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Necessary? | |
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| What's involved with IVF? | |
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| How does IVF bypass the problems of endometriosis? | |
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| What's the downside of IVF? | |
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| Miscarriage and Endometriosis: Is There a Connection? | |
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| Finding the Right Doctor | |
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| Finding a Gynecologist | |
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| Looking for the right doc | |
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| Narrowing your search | |
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| Scheduling your first appointment | |
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| Navigating the First Doctor's Visit | |
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| Describing your symptoms | |
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| Interviewing your doctor | |
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| Making your final decision | |
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| Working with Your Doctor | |
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| Communicating your concerns | |
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| Keeping your expectations realistic | |
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| Divorcing Your Doctor Painlessly | |
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| Do You Have Endometriosis? Your Initial Exam and Diagnosis | |
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| Preparing for Your Diagnostic Exam | |
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| Knowing what to do (and not do) | |
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| Bringing information with you | |
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| Understanding How Your Doctor Makes a Diagnosis | |
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| The general exam | |
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| The pelvic exam | |
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| Ouch! Tenderness during the exam | |
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| Keeping the Lines of Communication Open | |
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| Talking openly with your doctor | |
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| Maintaining your own set of records | |
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| Undergoing a Few Diagnostic Tests | |
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| It's a draw - blood, that is | |
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| Checking your stool for blood | |
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| Your cup runneth over: The urinalysis | |
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| Testing, testing: Ultrasounds, X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and more | |
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| Diagnosing Endometriosis Surgically | |
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| Biopsying endometriosis | |
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| Diagnosing endometriosis visually | |
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| Looking at endometriosis under the scope | |
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| Staging Endometriosis | |
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| Treating Endometriosis | |
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| Relying on (Prescription) Drugs to Treat Endometriosis | |
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| Understanding Medical Treatment: How Drugs Fight Endometriosis | |
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| Mimicking pregnancy | |
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| Mimicking menopause | |
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| Looking at Hormonal Medication Options | |
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| Popping the Pill: Oral contraceptives | |
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| Considering progestins alone | |
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| Debating danazol (Danocrine) | |
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| Trying GnRH agonists | |
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| Inserting an IUD for pain relief | |
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| Checking Out Nonhormonal Options | |
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| Using NSAIDs | |
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| Trying other painkillers | |
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| Looking at What the Future Holds | |
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| Looking at GnRH antagonists | |
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| Pursuing antiprogestins | |
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| Selecting SERMS | |
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| Examining aromatase inhibitors | |
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| Testing SPRMs | |
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| Finding new treatments (and wrinkles) all the time | |
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| Contemplating Surgery to Improve Your Endometriosis | |
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| Eyeing the Two Main Surgical Methods | |
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| One option: Having a laparoscopy | |
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| Another option: Choosing laparotomy | |
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| Naming the Surgical Tools | |
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| Cutting with knives and scissors | |
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| Vaporizing tissues: Electrosurgery | |
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| Beaming away the tissues: Lasers | |
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| Using the harmonic scalpel | |
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| Putting everything back together | |
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| Knowing which tool is better | |
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| Starting Surgical Treatment Conservatively | |
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| Cutting away adhesions | |
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| Trying ablation of endometriosis | |
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| Removing ovarian cysts - How much? | |
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| Looking at LUNA | |
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| Decreasing endometrial pain: Presacral neurectomy | |
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| Opting for Radical Surgery | |
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| Removing your ovaries | |
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| Having a hysterectomy | |
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| Choosing how to approach a hysterectomy | |
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| Recovering from hysterectomy | |
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| Making the Right Surgical Choice | |
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| Considering Alternative Therapies and Remedies to Relieve the Pain | |
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| Being Aware of Alternative Medicine Pitfalls | |
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| Finding a competent practitioner | |
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| Protecting yourself from dangerous (or useless) pills | |
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| Accessing Acupuncture | |
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| Easing the pain with just a little prick | |
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| Finding a licensed acupuncturist | |
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| Considering a Chiropractor | |
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| Understanding what a chiropractor does | |
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| Finding a chiropractor | |
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| Using Heat and Massage for Pain Relief | |
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| Relying on Relaxation Techniques | |
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| Stretching with Yoga and T'ai Chi | |
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| Finding out more about yoga and T'ai Chi | |
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| Looking closer at the benefits of yoga and T'ai Chi | |
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| Using a TENS Unit | |
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| Trying Traditional Chinese Medicine | |
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| Considering Herbal Medicines | |
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| Trying an herbalist | |
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| Working with a homeopath | |
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| Seeing a naturopath | |
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| Breathing Your Way to Feeling Better: Aromatherapy | |
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| Considering Immunotherapy | |
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| Naming the two main treatment options | |
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| Considering biologic response modifiers | |
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| Managing the Chronic Physical Pain | |
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| Defining Chronic Pain | |
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| Self-Medicating with Over-the-Counter Meds | |
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| Comparing the types of OTC painkillers | |
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| Choosing meds wisely | |
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| Trying Prescription Medications | |
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| Taking prescription NSAIDs | |
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| Considering opioids | |
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| Trying Ultram | |
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| Taking antidepressants | |
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| Considering antiseizure medications | |
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| Creaming Away the Pain | |
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| Exercising Away Your Pain | |
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| Using Heat and Massage for Pain Relief | |
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| All Things Teens: Diagnosing, Treating, and Coping with Endometriosis | |
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| Making a Diagnosis in Teens (And Preteens) | |
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| Letting teens know that severe menstrual pain isn't normal | |
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| Understanding why pain doesn't recur every month | |
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| Getting through the gyno exam | |
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| Ruling out other problems | |
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| Knowing the Risks When Choosing Treatment for Teens | |
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| Being more conservative (or more aggressive?) when treating teens | |
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| Realizing that teens may still be growing | |
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| Eying the medication risks | |
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| Identifying surgical risks | |
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| Keeping Communication Open between Parent and Teen | |
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| Helping Teens Live with Endometriosis | |
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| Handling school absence | |
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| Watching for signs of depression | |
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| Preserving fertility in teens with endometriosis | |
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| Finding a teen support network | |
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| Living With Endometriosis | |
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| Coping with Endometriosis and Your Emotions | |
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| Understanding How Endometriosis Can Affect Your Mental Health | |
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| When Depression Rears Its Ugly Head: Feeling Down in the Dumps | |
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| What exactly is depression? | |
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| What are the signs of depression? | |
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| How do I know when I need help? | |
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| Determining If Anxiety Is Your Problem | |
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| Defining anxiety | |
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| Looking for possible signs | |
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| Treating Emotional Problems with Medication | |
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| Trying tricyclics | |
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| Switching to SSRIs and other new antidepressants | |
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| Looking at the latest antidepressants | |
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| Avoiding serotonin syndrome | |
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| Stopping antidepressants | |
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| Expressing Your Frustration without Alienating Everyone You Know | |
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| Finding friends who understand | |
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| Looking for support from groups | |
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| Turning to a therapist | |
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| Changing Your Lifestyle When You Have Endometriosis | |
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| Focusing on Life beyond Endometriosis | |
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| Keeping a positive attitude | |
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| Scheduling around good and bad days | |
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| Coping with Work When You Don't Feel Good | |
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| Finding the right job for you | |
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| Being honest with your potential boss? | |
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| Being aware of your sick time | |
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| De-stressing Your Life: More Than Just Breathing in Slowly | |
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| Changing Your Bad Habits | |
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| Eating well really can change your life | |
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| Cutting back on the drinks | |
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| Snuffing out the smokes | |
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| Exercising for Health and Other Benefits | |
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| Understanding the benefits of movement | |
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| Taking the first step | |
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| Finding Chemically Safe Products | |
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| Adjusting Your Sex Life | |
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| Being upfront with your partner | |
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| Getting the most out of sex | |
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| Trying different positions | |
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| Just for Friends and Family: Help and Support | |
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| Living with Endometriosis - Secondhand | |
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| Understanding how endometriosis affects her | |
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| Helping without being a pain | |
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| Coping with the sexual effects of endometriosis | |
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| Keeping afloat financially | |
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| Persevering Through Infertility Treatments Together | |
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| Just for Moms and Dads: Being There for Your Adult Daughter | |
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| Finding Support for Yourself | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Ten Myths about Endometriosis | |
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| Endometriosis Is All in Your Head | |
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| Endometriosis Is Just Cramps | |
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| Only Women Get Endometriosis | |
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| Teenagers Don't Get Endometriosis | |
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| Endometriosis Goes Away at Menopause | |
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| Endometriosis Is a Career Woman's Disease | |
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| Endometriosis Only Exists in Industrialized Countries | |
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| A Hysterectomy Cures Endometriosis | |
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| Endometriosis Is Easy to See and Remove during Surgery | |
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| You Can't Get Pregnant If You Have Endometriosis | |
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| Ten (Or So) Trends in the Future of Endometriosis | |
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| Determining the Source of Endometriosis | |
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| Identifying Endometriosis Genes | |
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| Overcoming Infertility in Endometriosis | |
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| Diagnosing Endometriosis Earlier | |
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| Refining Medication Treatments | |
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| Improving Immune Therapy | |
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| Gaining Respect for Endometriosis | |
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| Starting More Organizations to Help | |
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| Getting Insurers to Help Cover the Costs | |
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| Transplanting Ovaries and Other Reproductive Organs | |
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| Decreasing Surgical Risks | |
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| Ten Strategies to Help with the Pain | |
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| Planning to Avoid Pain | |
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| Jumping on Pain the Minute It Begins | |
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| Keeping Medications You Need on Hand | |
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| Soaking in a Hot Tub | |
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| Massaging Away the Pain | |
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| Breathing Slow and Easy | |
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| Using Your Imagination | |
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| Talking It Over | |
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| Trying a Little Laughter | |
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| Knowing What Works for You | |
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| Appendixes | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Resources and Support | |
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| Looking for an Organization | |
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| Going Online | |
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| Flipping through Books | |
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| Reading Newsletters | |
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| Getting Involved in Clinical Trials | |
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| Attending Meetings and Support Groups | |
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| Asking Relatives and Friends | |
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| Index | |