M.B.
I think your doctor isn't concerned because he's a guy ;) Honestly, if a doctor is not taking a concern like this seriously, you really need a new doctor. And, it's honestly not just because of the impact on your quality of life of this specific issues, it's just that he is not listening to his patients concerns. He's a cookbook, "cut it out or drug it up" kindof doctor - we need to stop giving these guys our healthcare $s - that's how we as individuals can change the system.
Okay, I'll now get off my soapbox and give you some concrete and hopefully helpful suggestions. I would also make sure they test your thyroid (and all thyroid hormones and not just the pituitary hormone - TSH) and ALL your hormones. You can read MANY, many of my past postings as to what all thyroid hormones they should test. And, you really, really need all your other hormones tested, including dhea, cortisol (ideally using a 4x/day saliva test), testosterone (yes, we gals have some of that), estrogens - these are the MINIMUM they should test. Also, given your heavy bleeding, checking ferritin is a MUST - hormones can't get into your tissues unless you have decent levels of red blood cells. AND, please avoid all docs that want to give you synthetic hormones - bioidentical are what you want and the only ones that will likely work well. As Stacey already mentioned, one of the top docs in the DFW area that has a clue about this is Dr. Margaret Christensen. She is one of the docs that graduated at the top of her class, she was a top DFW OB/GYN and realized that the "drug it up or cut it out" approach was very damaging to women in the long run - it shows no respect for women's bodies.
Please make sure and keep copies of ALL the tests he runs - you pay for them and legally, he MUST do this. The slimier docs will charge you for this and try to tell you that they don't have to do this (that's another sign of a bad doctor - keep in mind that half of all docs graduated in the lower half of their med school class and most likely hover around average, with only a few (I'd guess 10%) graduating at the higher levels and thus showing that they really understand the human body and how to effectively treat patients and not labwork.
UPDATE: The reason why they MUST measure all your hormones at once is because they are all related - you look up the hormonal pathway diagrams on the Internet and see the relationships. The reason why few docs will run all these tests at once is because they were taught that problems occur in isolation and few understand the body as a whole and few understand that many of us have several problems that have built and have been layered over time. The ladies that do well after these surgeries are in the minority - many will need the hormones afterwards, whereas the integrated approach gives the hormones first to see if that doesn't resolve the issue, which is does in many cases.
