TRANSCRIPT
Real Patient
My issues started when I was 32 years old. I started having issues with my period. My period would be excessively heavy for a few days out of what was my normal period. I would not be able to leave my home for a couple of days during my period. I was constantly worried about if I was going to have an accident or if I did have to leave my home, if I had to find the nearest restroom and immediately get in there.
After some time, a couple of months I would say, my periods started getting longer in addition to having it be extra heavy. I went from a seven-day period to, I don’t know, at first it was 10 days. So I went from 10 days to 12 days to 16 days, and then finally I was like, okay, this is enough. I need to see my doctor.
I made an appointment and I talked to my doctor about my issues and they had decided to put me on a birth control. Birth control wasn’t something that I was excited about since I had had a tubal ligation a couple years prior in order to avoid taking a hormonal birth control. They prescribed a low dose birth control for me and I took that for three or four months without any changes.
I went back to see my doctor. Again, my periods had continually got longer. So I’m now at two-and-a-half-week-long periods, and they were heavy still. It was, it was uncomfortable and I started to feel insecure.
Having a period for that long, you, it starts, your whole life starts to revolve around it. I went back to my doctor and they prescribed a higher dose birth control pill. After taking that for a couple months I experienced some side effects. Night sweats, moodiness, were big things. My periods didn’t change.
So I went back for a third time and they prescribed a hormonal IUD. I talked to my doctor about it because I felt uncomfortable and he said that it would be totally fine, my periods would eventually stop. And I could just have the IUD and it would work out.
Okay, so I waited a couple of months. My periods did get lighter on the IUD, they did. They didn’t get any shorter. They never stopped. I was on the IUD for seven months before going back to my doctor.
I went back, they had done numerous blood tests to see if something was wrong, if I had a bleeding disorder, if there was something wrong with my liver enzymes. I had every test under the sun done. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me.
Finally, after a year and a few months of doing all this, they finally sent me a referral to women’s health. One appointment in she was like, okay, we have done everything we can do for you as far as tests go. You seem okay. So this is what we can do to help you. She discussed an ablation with me and kind of went over that. She also mentioned hysterectomy.
Hysterectomy to me was scary. It sounded like something serious. Women who have hysterectomies are usually very sick or they’ve had extensive problems. And I didn’t feel that I qualified for that because I hadn’t, it was just a period that was lasting.
You know, at this point in time I was on a period for two months with maybe a week off and then it would go for another two months. I ended up choosing a hysterectomy because it was the best decision for me at that time.
I had had a tubal several years ago. So I was done having children, and I knew that I didn’t want any more children. I thought that if this was the only way to stop it, I needed to do it. I needed to get the quality of life back, where my life wasn’t revolving around my period. Leaving the house would be great again. You know, getting strong ties back in my marriage would be great again.
The ablation wouldn’t have worked for me because my doctor explained to me that my problem would likely return within a year that I would end up needing a hysterectomy anyway. For my hysterectomy, I had my uterus, my cervix, and my fallopian tubes removed. Since I was able to keep my ovaries, I didn’t have any hormonal issues after the surgery so I feel exactly the same way as I did before the surgery. It has changed my life dramatically.
I spent well over a year depressed and worried about my life around my period and that it consumed so much time. I don’t have to feel insecure about myself. And I don’t have to worry about if I’m bleeding too much tonight. Or if something’s going to get in the way and it’s just – before I was too insecure and I think that effected my intimate life with my husband a lot.
You go to your doctor and if your doctor says this is your problem and you don’t believe that it is, you go back to your doctor. And you tell them this is not what’s wrong with me. Something else is going on, more is going on, this isn’t helping. You have to be persistent I think sometimes. It took me well over a year to get to the women’s health clinic where one doctor was like, okay, we can solve your problem.