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This is my first time finding this site and I'm hoping to find either answers or comfort in knowing I'm not the only one who went through/is going through this mess.
I've seen numerous doctors of different statures who've had M.D., F.A.C.O.G., D.O., etc. after their names and yet I'm still left with many questions and unanswered problems. It's made me feel very much as if the practice of gynecology is just a giant darts game and doctors just happen to have better aim than the rest of us for hitting the bulls-eye sometimes.
I've had problems with bleeding for years -- shortly after I got my first period at 16 I started having problems just like my mother had before me. About a year into having periods, they got VERY heavy. As time continued to go on and I had more periods, they all started to seem as if they were one long chain of bleeding. There was no rhyme nor rhythm to them and I'd bleed so much that I'd go through the heaviest always pad available on the market within an hour's time and 'drop' huge clots of blood. This has especially been the case with my most recent episode where there were a couple times I passed out, seemingly from blood loss. I've always felt rather depressed, but with the recent string of issues, I've felt extremely hopeless and find myself holding back tears at the most inopportune times for crying to come about. It feels like every little thing gets me upset and crying.
I saw a D.O. who did two ultrasounds on me; the first was a normal vaginal ultrasound that found nothing out of sorts. No PCOS or anything. The second ultrasound was another vaginal ultrasound, but they 'inflated' my uterus with sterile water so to 'see the inside lining and get a better picture'. It too showed nothing particularly interesting aside from what they said MIGHT have been either a small clot or scar tissue from something. I was put on Provera 10 mg twice a day. It didn't stop it. They insisted I have a D&C but as I imagine many people can commiserate with, I simply couldn't afford the procedure. I insisted on getting a second opinion.
I went to see a doctor recommended to me by my mother's doctor, Neil Rosenshein, said to be one of the best GYN doctors in the country. She read my file and we discussed things. I told her I didn't particularly care to be on birth control, as I'd tried it in the past and it made me feel very disconnected. It ended up that's what she gave me a prescription for anyway and it was pretty much a choice between continuing to bleed or feeling disconnected. I was also told to stop the provera for a week to create a 'period' and then start on the pills.
My many questions left unanswered...
- How does a week without provera create a period when I've not had a single day in over two months without bleeding?
- Is birth control (yasmin and the like) really my only option?
- What good could a D&C actually do? Could it make it worse? My mother, who had the same problems, had 4 D&C procedures over the years that resulted in absolutely nothing, hence making me very apprehensive about wasting a couple thousand dollars for a procedure that won't help.
- How much trouble will I have conceiving a child in the not to distant future? Is it even worth trying without medical assistance? and...
- If it's not worth trying, why wouldn't a hysterectomy be an option so as not to have to go through this anymore...?
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Hi Susan.
I surely appreciate your reply. I realize what I wrote about only applies to a small portion of women, it seems, so the thought that there is some kind of something of knowledge about it somewhere is comforting.
I was on Provera for a good month and a half. If it did anything, it initially lightened the bleeding a bit and then it ramped back up to normal toward the end of me using it. 6 weeks, to me and to the second opinion doctor I saw, is enough for us to think it won't do much for me. I already have problems with depression which is why I was apprehensive to get on the pill.
Something you said made me curious - "it would appear that getting pregnant may be quite difficult since gauging ovulation will be tricky and having constant heavy bleeding and clotting would make sex itself not exactly pleasant". I've been under the influence, either by something I read or just assumption of my own, that the prolonged bleeding meant for the most part that I didn't ovulate. While sex while bleeding, especially heavily, is particularly unpleasant, my biggest concern was that ovulation was not taking place at all, or that the bleeding (which we've come to assume is a hormonal imbalance for lack of anything else) meant I had something wrong with me that would prevent it. Is this perhaps not the case? Can ovulation happen and fertility actually exist amongst such a condition?
My mother had me after paying several thousand dollars for fertility treatments. I don't want children badly enough that I'd pay through the nose to have them. It's just not worth it if it's not meant to be naturally for me, if you know what I mean.
Again, I surely appreciate the advice and I'll see about the HerOption that you linked to in the future should things continue to not work properly.
Thanks again,
December 21, 2010 - 6:06amBird/Rachel
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