Dr. Kiersa Diane Durfee, MD

I hate to write this review, because I like Dr. Durfee, and I believe she is interested in helping women, but she is doing women with endometriosis a disservice by not thoroughly informing patients about the latest medical research regarding the surgical removal of endometrial implants. That cost me personal harm, emotional stress, time and expense. I first went to her with a complaint that sexual intercourse had been getting progressively painful for the past six months. She performed a pelvic exam and told me it was a pulled muscle in my back. That didn’t feel right, but she disregarded my concern, saying the pelvic exam was normal and to come see her if I didn’t feel better soon. I don’t know why I left; I knew it was wrong. I returned a month later or so and she ordered an ultrasound which proved to be a fairly large hemorrhagic cyst—a chocolate cyst. Her advice was “wait and see.” She said it might go away on its own, but made no mention that this type of cyst is indicative of… stage four endometriosis. When finally I was diagnosed with endometriosis and we were discussing surgery, I asked about excision versus ablation, because I had read that ablation leaves the root of endometrial implants intact, and she literally laughed, saying there is nothing below the surface. (The analogy I used was only removing the tip of an iceberg and leaving the rest underwater.) Much to my regret, I had ablative surgery, performed by her partner. I’ve since learned that virtually every expert in the field of endometriosis considers excision the gold standard—that is cutting out all of the disease—instead of burning off the surface, which can leave disease behind buried under adhesions and scar tissue, a practice that requires a very skilled surgical team. The surgeon who performed my surgery had six other surgeries that day, and suggested medical suppression of the disease with Lupron on my follow-up visit, a harsh estrogen suppressor that only starves the remaining implants of estrogen for six months, after which time they rebloom when estrogen begins to flow again: an ineffectual and harmful bandaid. My point is, that Dr. Durfee could have done so many things differently. She should not have dismissed my initial pain, and she should have discussed with me the complexities of endometriosis treatment and at the very least acknowledged the validity of excision surgery. I had to have a second surgery six months later with Dr. Camrhan Nezhat of Stanford, pioneer in laparoscopic surgery and expert in the field of endometriosis, who’s views on endometriosis treatment seem to be exactly opposite to those of Dr. Durfee and her partner. He and his team operated for several hours, making me their only surgery that day and removing scar tissue and endometrial implants left by my initial surgery. There has been some research to show that women who have ablation surgery as their first endometriosis surgery have a reduced chance of success in being pain free in subsequent surgeries. The practice of ablation followed by temporary medical suppression of endometriosis is harming women with an already daunting and misunderstood disease. Doctors need to stay abreast of the latest research regarding endometriosis and be willing to admit that treating the disease effectively might be outside of the scope of their expertise or of what their healthcare network will allow them to do.

This doctor just posted a comment on a post regarding bimanual pelvic exams being done without consent on unconscious women during surgery by an assembly line of medical students. She stated that this is routine practise and acted as though this is totally ok. She even claimed that the practise of one medical student doing a pelvic exam, slapping the KY jelly on the next medical students hand for the next pelvic exam, and this continuing repeatedly down the line is ok because the KJ jelly is “clean”? Absolutely appalling and disgusting. Essentially she thinks it’s ok to repeatedly gang bang a patient without their consent while they are under anaesthesia. Seriously a sick woman