Post menopausal bleeding

Good morning, I have not seen any posts like my problem and so I am posting this message. After going for over a year and a half without a minstral cycle I thought I was done. In June of 2003 I began bleeding again. I made an appointment with a new doctor, new to me actually, in the office where I am seen. This is a large practice with 8 doctors and a nurse/midwife. I was examined and told I needed to schedule a DNC. It was done on July 3rd which gave me three days to recouperate. It was fine, several polops were removed from my uterus but they were benign (?). Fast forward to November. I started bleeding again. Not alot but noticable. I went back to see Dr and he wanted to do an ultra sound. I went for my ultra sound and evreything looked good. I did have a fibroid but that was all. I ahd stopped bleeding and everything was ok, right? Wrong! Early in December I started bleeding again. I went back to see Dr. and he recommened a hysterectomy. He said he did not know why I was bleeding but the only sure way to make it stop is a hysterectomy. I asked him if there was something else we could do and he precribed hormones. I also had blood work to make sure I was truly post menopausal. the blood test confirmed I was post menopausal. When the hormones did not stop the bleeding, I stared again just before Christmas, I becam very upset. I contaced my former GYN for a second opinion.
He did a biopsy of my cervix and pap smear as no cells were removed to be tested during the DNC. That was negative and he told me I was ok but if the bleeding started again I would have to have a hysterectomy. This was February 11th. On March 12th I started bleeding again. I thought it would be ok because it was not much but when the Dr. called me he said the amount did not matter, the fact that it was happening was cause for concern. Now I am scheduled for a hysterectomy on May 18th to be sure we did not miss anything during the tests. My mother-in-law went with me to the concultation and now I am going to have a TAH. I would appreciate knowing what anyone else might think about this and if anyone else has been in a similar situation.
Jeannie

Hi Jeannie,

Welcome to Hyster Sisters. I'm awfully sorry that you are facing surgery, but glad that you found us and posted.

I had been on PremPro for several years before my surgery because of menopausal symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats, moodiness and very heavy bleeding), and I eventually did end up needing to have a hyst because of prolapses of my uterus, bladder and bowel, but not because of continued bleeding. I'm hoping that someone will come along soon who has had a similar experience.

In the meantime, please be sure to read the Pre-Op Hints and the Post-Op Hints. They are full of great advice that will help you to prepare for your surgery and recovery.

I hope that you'll continue to read, research and post any questions that you may have. We'll do our best to offer support.

S

Hi Jeanne,

I am 55 and had LAVH-BSO on 3/5/04. I had so much bleeding between age 53, 54 and into 55 that I thought I was still premenopausal, even though blood tests that showed I was postmenopausal! My doctor at the time thought nothing of it.

But, why was I still getting my "period"???

I changed doctors and was referred to a gyn. The gyn suggested doing an endometrial biopsy, due to the bleeding and family history of uterine and ovarian cancer.
The biopsy showed hyperplasia, which is a precancerous situation. My doc and her colleague, a Oncology-Gyn, looked over my findings and recommended total hysterectomy, to not just stop the bleeding, but also protect me from cancer down the road.

After surgery, the pathology report showed the hyperplasia, which we knew about,........but also, adenomyosis, which was within the uterine walls. This situation is also a cause of abnormal bleeding.

I guess the bottom line is that if you are bleeding after your body has gone into menopause, that is not a good thing for you and you need to be treated. My grandmother ignored post-menopausal bleeding for several years and thus developed uterine cancer.

The weeks leading up to surgery are tense and you worry about what is going to happen. Reading the posts on this site taught me so much, gave me comfort, and helped me communicate better with my doctor. Once the day actually arrived, I was peaceful and ready to get it done. I was so glad to find out once and for all what was happening in my body. Also, it is a great relief that the surgery is now over and they got everything out before I developed any more serious problems.

A big hug to you and my thoughts and prayers.

Jeannie,

I had a sort of similar situation-- in the fall of 1999 I began bleeding irregularly, although I was still also getting periods. It would range from light spotting, to heavy flows, to nothing at all. I'd had a similar situation in June of that year but a couple of ultrasounds showed only functional ovarian cysts, and they disappeared--at that point the uterus was normal in thickness, and a hormone test showed that I was not in menopause.

But after the bleeding started up again, and continued Nov 99-Jan 2000, my Dr sent me for another ultrasound, and this time it showed a thickening of the uterine wall. A D&C showed probable endometrial cancer, and a week later I had a full TAH BSO. Because my DR was pretty aggressive about the whole thing (I kept on saying, hey, it's just menopause, chill out...but he ignored me) the cancer was caught very early, I needed no further treatments, and I've been fine ever since--just had my "fourth anniversary followup CT scan" and it was perfect.

Don't hesitate to ask your DR any questions that you have, and of course you can always look into the possibility of a second opinion, too.

I don't say all this to scare you, but just to tell you what my own experience was. I'm keeping you in thought and prayer. Let us know how things are going.

Blessings.
Marlene

Jeannie, you did not say if you had an endometrial biospy done at the time of your D&C. This would have shown if the cells were ok or could have shown up the hyperplasea or precncerous cells. If I were you I would want to find out about that. That is definitely a reason for a TAH but I would then also want a gyn oncologist involved so they could also check out lymph nodes for any spread at the same time as the TAH. I had to go back 6 weeks after my TAH to have another abdominal surgery to do lymph nodes biopsies. The final path repost that showed the staging didn't come back til a wekk after my surgery and if they had thought it was a step up from what it showed in the priliminary bipsy done by frozen section in the OR, they could have done it all at once. I had had a clean endometrial biopsy a couple of years before the one I had a few months before surgery, that showed the hyperplasia, so things can change. It helped with my decision and comfort with having the surgery knowing that it really was what had to be done and I dind't really have any choice.

Linda >^..^<