I've always had normal periods up till about 2 1/2yrs. ago. Right before I turned 40, they started to get longer and heavier each month until I was having one every other week that would last 2 weeks. Way to start out my 40's. If this is what my 40's are like, I don't want to know what the rest of my life will be like.
Also a lot more pain than the one day of cramps I used to have. So ibuprofen was my best friend. Never left home w/out it. Along w/all the sanitary products I needed. If I could have fit a roll of Bounty paper towels in place of my tampon, I'd have used 'em!
Gyn tried 3 different kinds of birth control pills. The result was that I was bleeding every day on those.
I had ultrasound done which showed nothing out of the ordinary and a test where a sample was taken out of my uterus to see if anything showed up there. Again, nothing to worry about.
Meanwhile, my bloodwork showed severe anemia and very low hemoglobin count. Iron pills were helping, but only so much w/the heavy bleeding still going on.
Gyn wanted to do an endometrial ablation. I said no because I knew women who had it done, and ended up w/hysterectomies anyways because it didn't work for them. And w/a $1000 deductible on my insurance, I sure couldn't afford to have it done only to find out after the deductible rolled back into affect that I would have to try something else.
With only 4 months till the deductible starts over again, I'm pretty desperate to get this resolved and ask the Gyn about a hysterectomy which he , understandably, seems reluctant to do.
But after looking over all I'd been thru and seeing the hemoglobin count at 8.1, he agrees to do the hysterectomy.
He gives me 3 choices for the operation, and I decided on the laparascopic supracervical hyst.
Surgery went fine, and my recovery has been great. Still a little sore and swelled, but feeling better than I have in 2 yrs. Never having had surgery for anything before, this was a pleasant experience.
The diagnosis after tests on the uterus was adenomyosis. Which, from what I gleaned on the internet and on this site, is only resolved thru menopause which could have been 10 or more yrs. from now...or...by having a hysterectomy. But unfortunately, there are no routine tests that can diagnose this before a hysterectomy.
I wish I had found this site before the operation so I could have gone in a little more confidently, but as it is, I'm learning that I'm not the only one who went thru what I went thru. I hope that this will help someone else who is coming up w/out answers to why they're having such heavy, long periods. And why birth control isn't helping.
Even after searching all over the web for answers to heavy, long periods, I never saw anything about adenomyosis. This was before the diagnosis. I thought maybe I was just one of those gals whose uterus decided to work over time for no reason other than that it wanted to because I was getting old.
I'm 42 now and looking forward to the rest of my 40's. Us women have it rough, but we're tougher for it.
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