Empowering Yourself by choosing the CORRECT treatments for YOU and YOUR body!

[Fleur1]

Hi there, I have had dreadfully heavy periods (Menorrhagia) for many years now resulting in incredible inconvenience. Despite raising this several times with my doctors and also Kidderminster hospital and having a quick internal check there, I was told that I was perfectly fine.

After a few years in 2015 and then 2016 when feeling a lot better and gaining the confidence to, I raised this as an urgent matter with my local Worcestershire GP again and blood tests were done quickly, and an investigation last year with Worcester Hospital booked. This was incredibly efficient and I had an ultrasound, a camera inserted into the vaginal cavity which was pretty much a breeze after experiencing childbirth! They were able to tell me there and then that I had a fibroid on my womb wall which was non-cancerous afterwards and would have caused or added to my heavy bleeding problem. I left and drove myself home and carried on for the day as if nothing had happened as i was in the middle of a divorce.

Since then I tried the Merino Coil to alleviate the bleeding yet i started to light bleed daily on it and it subsequently irritated me internally and slipped out. I am now a year later on taking 3 monthly injected progesterone which worked for the first 2 months no heavy bleeding but on the 3rd there has been a problem with bleeding yet again (it was like this with the coil). Any advice would be greatly appreciated on what to do next, I was going to take the 3 year injection a month ago but I need a treatment that reduces blood flow to just 5-7 days and makes it light or halts it altogether. I was hoping this would resolve it.

Would Ullipristal work to destroy the fibroid? Can anyone recommend any good alternatives. I believe that this has heavily contributed to mood changes and blood loss to exhaustion at times. Also my blood pressure has been high for quite a few years now which is unusual as it was always low.

My advice would be if you have heavy bleeding don't be fobbed off, insist on further investigation until the matter is resolved. The hospital investigation was really not too painful, similar to a smear test really, they put a clear covering over the probe and lubricant is available, looking at your womb is quite funny without a little person in it and from the inside and after all it seems my fibroid was non malignant!

[Zelda5]

Sounds like the test was a vaginal ultrasound. How big is the fibroid? It all depends on what all you have going on. If you've got Endometriosis, or anything like that, which would require a laprascopic look, I think. I just had a total laprascopic hysterectomy. The first thing I had done was a D&C, I guess to rule out more nefarious things such as cancer, which made my bleeding more severe and me more anemic. Though some people get some relief from it. The first dr. suggested a Mirena coil too and I wasn't to down with that really and the second dr. said that most women do have constant spotting with it, so he suggested a Novasure ablation and tubal ligation. When he was in there with the laprascope he found Endo and said I had a large uterus with severe Adenomyosis. Well, with Adenomyosis they can't really diagnose that until they do a hysterectomy and a hysterectomy is the only cure for it, if I understand it correctly. You can get an excision surgery for Endo and sometimes have fibroids removed and keep your uterus in tact or do the Mirena coils or birth control. It just really depends. I initially only wanted some transexamic acid to try. I just wanted to take the edge off my monthly blood letting. For me the more the Drs. did the worse it became until eventually my only option left was a hysterectomy. The ablation for me was a big mistake. It was good for a year or so and was nice to have very light bleeding monthly, then the constant lower back pain and sharp pains in my side started and the frequent urination was driving me nuts. I got my pathology report on my follow-up and I was also checked for interstitial cystitis of the bladder when I had my surgery done, which was negative. I did have Endo in the 6 out of 8 samples they tested and I didn't have Adenomyosis at all but I did have multiple fibroids. So, you might ask about exploratory surgery if you want to go that far with it, because as far as I know an internal exam and ultrasound won't show Endo at all. A MRI might. Anyway only one fibroid showed up on my scan. I think the others were smaller and may have thickened the uterine wall and gave the appearance of Adenomyosis. Sorry this has been so lengthy but I wanted to give you more of a understanding of the things I've tried and the pitfalls that I've learned, but everyone's different. So, discuss it with it your Dr. and research...research, so you can make the best informed decision. Good luck!

[Fleur1 in reply to Zelda5]

Thank you so much for this detailed approach. Actually I had an MRI several years ago when experiencing problems although possibly not connected so having access to my records recently may give me a more clear picture of my health and if this was picked up at the time, which it should have been in hospital if visible given my concerns, this will enable me to inform my doctor or referred gynaecologist.