Ethna’s journey
“Whatever way you look at it, a hysterectomy is a big thing but to me when a total hysterectomy was the next option I didn’t have to think about it at all”
Pretty much since day one my periods have not been easy. Sometimes painful, sometimes really painful, sometimes irregular, sometimes all the time, sometimes heavy, sometimes light…never just a period.
I didn’t realise that it wasn’t even what should be happening until I was pregnant for the first time and medical professionals asked about my periods. After my baby was born, I went on the pill and for the first time I had regular periods. They were still painful but at least I knew when they were going to happen.
It went on like that for a couple of years but then I'd get bleeding at random times, so I came off the pill to see if maybe my body had regulated itself but it hadn’t.
My partner and I knew we wanted more babies and with us about to get married the only way that I could be sure I wasn’t going to have to worry about bleeding through my wedding dress was to be pregnant so that brought the baby plans right to the present.
The next few years were a mix of several different contraceptive pills to keep things under control. Some were more successful than others, but then I also had the mood changes that came with so many different hormone doses, not to mention the chronic anaemia from heavy bleeding.
Another baby later and the bleeding was still an issue but I had pretty much gotten so used to it. I was still on the pill but was also now taking antidepressants to cope with the hormone changes.
After my next two pregnancies, I tried a combination of breastfeeding, the pill and the contraceptive implant (twice!) but that didn’t work.
My next choice was a copper coil as both myself and my GP thought that it was a good idea to avoid artificial hormones but that was a catastrophic plan. I was bleeding all the time, for weeks at a time but the advice was to stick it out, it would get better. It did a little bit but then the coil moved and had to be removed at which point I reluctantly agreed to have a Mirena Coil put in place.
Again it was a constant issue and got to the point where I had to carry spare clothes in my car.
When I eventually did get to see a gynaecologist in 2018, I was hopeful that there would be a more permanent solution.
I was seen by a male Junior Doctor who was very unsure of what to tell me. He went back-and-forth to his consultant, who was an elderly man who never spoke to me. The recommendation was an endometrial ablation to remove the lining of my womb and to also put another coil in place.
I consented to the endometrial ablation but not the coil. We came to an agreement that I would be sterilised during the procedure. Finally, I had hope.
The endometrial ablation was successful for about six weeks. Then I started bleeding again. Another referral was started, this time it took me five years to get an appointment. I was not hopeful until I met Dr Daly.
Dr Daly was my age, she was a woman, she listened to me. She said that life is for living and that a hysterectomy was the only option left but she didn’t need to convince me. When she scanned me she thought that I had fibroids. However, after an MRI it was confirmed that I didn’t have fibroids, but that my womb was actually heart-shaped which answered a lot of unanswered questions about the past 30 years of unusual bleeding.
I got the date for my surgery 25 years to the day that I first found out I was pregnant, it felt like it was meant to be.
None of this has been an easy road. It has been a long and sometimes emotional road but this has absolutely been the right way to end it. I have no doubts and never will have doubts, but none of it could’ve been done without the support of my surgeon who listened to me and supported my decision.
So if this is you, if this feels like a story that you’ve heard before then don’t give up. Keep talking about it and even if you think that you haven’t heard anybody else talking about what’s happening to you, you can be very sure that it is happening to somebody else. You’re not alone.
