Is it a diagnostic laparoscopy? I had to make that hard choice with both my diagnostic laparoscopy and hysterectomy. I couldn't take the pain long enough to wait for a specialist. A regular gynecologist did my laparoscopy, removed as much endo as she could, and took detailed pictures with the assumption that I would need another surgery, and I would take the pictures to a specialist.

For my hysterectomy, I went through University of Washington's minimally invasive gynecologic surgery department. Still not specialists in endo, but my surgeon saw it often enough to know what to look for.

There was a pretty large study done in the UK about endometriosis and mental health-- so if it were me, and I knew that my mental health was at risk by remaining in pain longer, I would go with the soonest available surgeon for something diagnostic.

If you can wait, I would absolutely recommend it. It's best to get an endo specialist who either has experience with bowel endometriosis themselves/and or who works with one or two gastro surgeons that would also be in the operating room. It's bad enough we all tend to have multiple surgeries because of this disease, but that just means it's better to have the experts be the ones to do them when and if possible. Also ideally the endo expert will have you meet with a gastro and do a colonoscopy before surgery to map things out. I know waiting in pain is the worst, I hope you are able to see them sooner and that you find some relief!

I think it makes sense to wait for a specialist if bowels were involved. I was shamed by a gynecologist for even discussing bowel issues, so my experience is that they don't want to go near it.

Ugh! I know these choices are so difficult. The main thing I would want to know is that No One is going to use ablation to treat the endo. I didn't know that everyone doesn't do excision surgery to remove the endo. I've been worse ever since my laparoscopy. Wait if you can but if you go forward with the other surgeon make sure they know how to do excision!
Good luck to you for pain free days ahead!!

Thank you everyone, I appreciate your inputs, this is the only place I can talk to people who understand what I’m going through!