"No point in ruining your life"

Everything I've read on endometriosis recommends dietary changes to control the disease. Most of it is contradictory, and what isn't is depressing. No dairy. No wheat. No alcohol. For a lacto-ovo vegetarian who loves bread, cheese, and beer, this is the diet from hell. And don't even get me started on the rest of it -- can I eat sunflower seeds or not? Is the fact that soy has estrogen in it good or bad? Supplements: what works? Nobody seems to agree, which leads me to believe they honestly don't know. Hey, I'm ok with you not knowing. Just tell me you don't know. Don't tell me to cut out all the foods I love, then take it back 20 years from now.

Every time I go in for a mammogram, they tell me to cut out caffeine and take vitamin E. Honestly, I think all vitamin E does for me is make me bruise if I so much as look at the corner of a table. And I think the caffeine thing's a load of crap. From my college days up until about four years ago, I drank on average two pots of coffee a day. Even when I was sick. If I got out of bed, I drank coffee. Apropos of nothing (except maybe that the coffee at work tastes like charred feces), I switched to tea. Then green tea. Now I drink on average two cups of green tea a day. I've read that green tea has about a quarter of the caffeine of coffee. Do the math. So I've made this drastic reduction in caffeine consumption, and I've had more lumps in the past four years than I have since I got breasts. My mother completely decaffeinated for a year (not so much as a chocolate chip!), and her doctor told her it did no good -- that if she missed her coffee, she could have it. Again, I think they just don't know.

I brought all this up with my doctor last year during my annual exam (well, not the caffeine/vitamin E thing, as I know they're all convinced of this). Honestly, I was hoping he could sort out the sunflower seed question, as I adore them. He told me he felt we could control this with medicine, and that there was no reason for me to "ruin my life" with this diet. I trust him, so I'm going to try his way a bit longer. (Though I still take E and evening primrose oil, just in case.)