Help needed: Intermenstrual Bleeding

[Julyxiaobao]

Dear all, this is my first post in this community and I hope that the kind and wonderful people here can help me to find a better way to solve my health problems.

I am a young single girl (aged below 30) who have suffered 5 years of intermenstrual bleeding (bleeding between periods), I had gone through some thorough investigations with NHS in the beginning of 2010 and and found that I have mild cervical erosion which was cured as well as a small endometrial polyp - which was removed in colposcopy in June 2010; I had smear tests along the way as well and they all appeared negative apart from one which was later clarified as wrong. In 2011, I did some further smear tests and the results were negative. The symptoms were less severe for the most part of 2012 and 2013. However, late 2013, they returned and this time I chose to see private gynaecologist as the the duration of abnormal bleeding was quite long. She checked quite a lot of things - hormone levels, smear tests, ultra-sound scan etc, and in the end she suggested to do a colposcopy as there were no obvious causes. During the procedure she found 2.5 endometrial polyps and removed them in Dec 2013. I thought that this should bring the end to the story, however, in April, the intermenstrual bleeding came back again for 10 days again last month which lasted for more than 20 days. I am seeing the doctor for a follow-up consultation on Thursday but I am quite depressed as this has been going on for a long time, does anyone who has similar symptoms can offer any advices on top of seeing a gynaecologist? I think I really need to find out a second approach to this problem.

A million thanks!!

[Lamartin92]

Hey I'm not sure if this will help or even sound vaguely similar but I used to suffer with bleeding between periods, until I continuously bled for about 8 weeks before I was taken seriously for my blood test back in April for results to come back with a blood count of 5.4. I was rushed into hospital for 3 days 4 hours after my blood test was done it was then discovered I had polysistic ovaries and stage 5 endo and a 15cm endometrial cyst on my womb, a lot of my insides aren't where they should be. Soon to be removed thank god in 2 weeks time!! I'm on meds now to stop the bleeding and have Been since April, it's stopped most of the bleeding but I still have to were a pad daily as I still have a little bleeding, bleeding is quite common with polysistic ovaries, I'm only 22 so just trying to keep a positive outlook about it all!! As it easily gets you down!! I'm not sure if I've helped, hopefully you get the answers your looking for good luck xxx

[Impatient]

What have you tried in the way of medication to control bleeding - BC pills, Tranexamic Acid etc?

There are NHS guidelines for the treatments for heavy menstrual bleeding - which doesn't just apply to periods but also to mid cycle bleeding too.

pathways.nice.org.uk/pathwa...

Have a look at the flow charts - then click on the little blue circles at the bottom right corner of each box - that opens up a list of options in the column on the right for you to read through.

There's a lot of valuable info in there and perhaps some new ideas you might want to discuss with your specialist that you haven't yet tried out.

I have a mirena coil inside and working - it stopped my periods, period pains, PMT, ovulation pain and ovulation bleeds too...... but it didn't prevent ovarian cysts and since the mirena went in I have grown my own cervical polyp - which has yet to be removed - though it has not caused me any bleeding what so ever. The mirena took about 5 months to stop the periods, then in the 1st year I had a hiccup of two consecutive periods a month apart - thought the mirena had failed - but since then not a smidge of vaginal bleeding not even spotting - so it certainly is doing a great job for me, and lasts up to 5 years without needing to take pills.

For years before that - my periods were erratic - some lasted a week and anything up to 3 weeks at a time, I was on tranexamic acid for years - it did manage to work as many times as it failed to work to curtail long bleeds. Roughly 50% success rate each month. It was hit and miss - but worth trying because i was so grateful when it did work.

Very pleased with how mirena is now stopping all that palaver.

hope you manage to find a way to eliminate the bleeds and improve life. There are lots of options and it is trial and error to find out what best suits you when initial surgery hasn't solved the problem.

If you have finished with babymaking then MEA or microwave endometrial ablation has recently been accepted as a treatment option offered on the NHS.

This process involves cooking the lining of the womb (by a number of different methods) and this causes the menstrual lining to scar up and not grow and shed in the future.

It can considerably reduce bleeds for women with normal shaped uterus, though more than one treatment may be necessary to stop periods completely, it is much less invasive or drastic as having a hysterectomy would be.

Very best of luck finding the right treatment to suit you.