Living with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)

Last month, I was diagnosed with PID and I’ve been trying to recover ever since! A little over a year ago, I was involved in a sexual relationship with a man that I believe infected me with PID. I’m not implying that all PID cases are sexually transmitted, that just happens to be how I came in contact with the disease. Shortly after my last affair with this male, I started to have abdominal pain that I associated with a Urinary Tract Infection All throughout my life I’ve had the misfortune of contracting UTI infections, so I instantly assumed this was the case and had my doctor call me in meds for a bladder infection. Well, the medicine I took for a bladder infection masked the ultimate problem of PID which would reappear many months later.

Months pass, and I grow more and more weak, and more susceptible to spasms of pain in my pelvic/abdominal area. The pain became so intense that in August, it was to the point that I was constantly belching, had a continual ache in my abdomen/pelvic area, bouts of gas, and intense nausea. Finally, I broke down and went to the doctor.

I suppose the reason I didn’t go to the doctor earlier is because I was in denial that an STD could happen to me. I’d always been careful about the sexual partners I chose. Thus, I figured that I couldn’t possibly have an STD, and what’s more, I was ashamed to admit to my doctor that I had been sexually promiscuous.

At any rate, my doctor diagnosed me with Bacterial Vaginosis, which is usually a byproduct of Trichomoniasis. I was also diagnosed with PID and put on a severe regiment of medicine. I was given a shot of Rocephin, a weeks worth of Doxycycline, and Flagyl. The medicine was horrible, and between the aching in my female parts and the medicine, I didn’t think I would survive!

After about one week, I began to slowly feel better, to the point that the symptoms completely disappeared. Now, here’s where I hope other people really learn from my mistakes. A week after all my medications were already over, I resumed my sexual relationship with my monogamous partner (who, by the way, was also on a regiment of meds). It wasn’t a week and 1/2 later that I became severely ill, again, with PID. Unbeknown to me, and especially because I wasn’t familiar with PID, I thought that because all my pain was gone, and because I had finished my meds, that I could resume a sexual relationship.

Long after the meds are taken, my pelvis had continued to still be inflamed, making me particularly susceptible to another bout of PID. Now, I have been given a double dose of the same meds, and feel worse than ever. What’s more, is that I have to see a gynecologist tomorrow to make sure that none of my internal female parts are growing cysts, tumors, etc. The worst part about all of this, especially for me, is that I could have avoided this horrible trauma altogether had I practiced safe sex, or abstinence. I really hope that doctors will start talking to their patients about PID, and what’s more, that such a serious diagnosis will gain more coverage and awareness so that women may become more empowered to stop something like this before it starts, or, at least know enough about PID to recognize the warning symptoms.