Hey Beautiful Fam! Last week I talked about my hysteroscopy surgery and what to possibly expect. Unfortunately, I was back at square one with a fibroid growing in the same spot the endometrial polyp was. I also had another fibroid that was at the top of my uterus, which increased in size and I was still dealing with cysts on my ovaries from PCOS. Outside of finding out that I wasn’t ovulating properly, the other issue I was up against was the thickness of my uterine lining. Being thick is not a bad thing as long as it’s in the right places—and my endometrial wall was not the place for it to be! My doctor informed me when there’s a thickening of the uterine lining, in some cases women can develop cancer. It was recommended that I try a hormonal IUD to help alleviate my symptoms especially with the heavy bleeding. My other option—surgery. I remember being so stressed about going through everything all over again and at this point feeling like I wanted to give up. Reluctantly, I moved forward with getting the hormonal IUD.
The first few weeks were ROUGH because of the side effects. I had backaches, cramping, terrible headaches, dizziness, nausea and I think I even experienced mood swings. All these side effects lasted for about 3-4 weeks but my uterus was not having it! In hindsight, I honestly feel like my body rejected the IUD because the side effects felt like they were amplified x10. I didn’t notice much of an improvement with my cycle after getting the hormonal IUD. In fact, after 3 months my period was the worst that I had ever experienced. I was having extremely heavy bleeding more often and the blood clots were so huge I thought my organs were coming out. At times I would have to just sit on the toilet for 30 minutes or until the bleeding subsided and was somewhat manageable.
When these bleeding episodes would occur, I would soak through my thick pads and tampons in 15 minutes tops. It sounds unreal but this is what I was dealing with at the time. The other reason I decided to just stay in the bathroom to deal with the bleeding episodes is because of the size of the clots. During one of my bleeding episodes the blood clots were so big it clogged the drain in the tub. It literally felt like I was hemorrhaging and did not know how to control the bleeding. On top of that I was back to having my period for 2-3 weeks at time. I felt miserable and weak because I was losing so much blood. My work was affected tremendously; I didn’t want to go out in public or be bothered with anyone because I needed to be close to a bathroom in case, I started bleeding. I also noticed that whenever I started cramping, that was a sign I was going to be dealing with heavy bleeding. This occurred whether I was on my menstrual cycle or not; which meant I was bleeding in between cycles. It was such a blessing that my boss at the time was so empathetic with what I was going through because I would have to be late some days or even miss work because my bleeding was uncontrollable.
At this point I was ready to get this damn IUD out because it was making things worse than they already were. Plus, I didn’t like the idea of having something foreign in my body. I remembered my doctor telling me from time to time to check my cervix to see if I can feel the strings of the IUD. I checked my cervix and could not feel anything. I started to wonder if the huge clots pushed the IUD out or if it got lost somewhere in my uterus. I reached out to my doctor and they had to run several tests and sonograms, some which were painful AF. The fibroid that was lingering in the top area of my uterus grew significantly so it was hard for the sonographers and the doctor to see inside the cavity. Due to the size of the fibroid my doctor had to insert a fiber optic camera through my cervix in order to get a better view of my uterus. This included filling my uterus with fluid to expand the area so the doctor can see as much as the endometrial cavity as possible.
My doctor stated that because that fibroid was getting larger, I would have to have surgery soon. There was a big part of me that was avoiding the surgery because I knew it would be much more invasive than my hysteroscopy, I had in 2016. This time around I would have to have a myomectomy because of the location of the other fibroid. I also felt like it was pointless because I was worried the fibroid would grow back—which is possible. My mind was racing with many different thoughts but surgery was that last thing I wanted to deal with.
Quick siting note: I’m excited to share another image from verywellhealth.com that shows what to think about when considering getting an IUD. S/O to Brianna Gilmartin for creating this dope image.
