Hi,
I was at the GP yesterday, and since I am ready to start trying for a baby just decided to mention to him this infection I had 5 years ago. I didn't think it was anything to worry about as the doctors at the time said it was "not a big deal" and just gave me some antibiotics and the option to remove my coil. I didn't even finish the course of antibiotics because I was young and wanted to drink, and the symptoms had cleared up.
So now GP says that this "not a big deal" infection I had can cause scarring of the womb and can affect fertility. He also told me that my cycle sounds healthy so there is no need to worry overly as the womb is remarkable at healing itself, and there is no way of knowing if I've been affected. The only way to find out for sure is to try, or through an invasive procedure. Obviously I'm going to try for a while before thinking about a procedure.
I wondered if anybody else on here had actinomycosis in a similar way to me and what their experience of conceiving was?
Basically I had the IUD age 20-25, then had a break for a year before having a new one inserted at 26. By this time I couldn't really remember the amount of pain from the first coil but remembered it wasn't that bad. The second coil caused a LOT of pain, and bleeding - to the point I almost went to A&E but then it subsided just in time for me to decide to wait and see. From then on I got intense crippling pain during my periods, bleeding every day between my cycle, and sharp debilitating pains between my cycle too. I wish I had done something about it, but I didn't feel I had a lot of options contraception-wise, and no-one had told me to watch out for this :( So I put up with the pain for about 15 months, at which point I started to suffer some kind of depression - it felt like I was extremely pre-menstrual, but all the time. Luckily I had a smear test a few months later, and the smear picked up actinomycosis. They said it was a "little infection" and "no big deal" and didn't even ask me about symptoms. I told them I had been bleeding heavily, experiencing intense pain, and had developed depression which felt like "intense PMT but all the time" but they didn't say anything about this except that I was probably mentally ill (this really worried and upset me, but luckily I spoke to my friends mum who was a nurse, and she assured me that ANY infection in your womb could cause emotional problems)!! They gave me antibiotics and said it was optional for me to have the coil removed. I wanted it out immediately as I knew instinctively this infection was causing my symptoms. The coil removed, I took antibiotics (I can't remember how long) and almost instantly my depression lifted, my bleeding and pain ceased shortly after. I didn't even take the full course of antibiotics, which was stupid - I was just so happy to not be weeping all the time like a pre-menstrual nutter (it had been months) that I wanted to go out and celebrate/get back to myself! Anyway, I have since had another smear and there was no actinomycosis and I don't have symptoms so I think removing the coil and the antibiotics that I took did solve it luckily.
So - now having found out a bit more about this "little infection" I am understandably worried, and also pretty pissed off at how I have been treated at the time. Apparently actinomycosis is "very rare" for women using the coil, but I wonder how seriously women are taken when they report with symptoms, or how seriously the link between fertility and the coil is taken by the medical establishment. Like if I had fertility issues I doubt any medical professional would link the 2 and so it wouldn't get recorded...
I'm going to try not to overly worry as you never know what's going to happen. My periods and hormones seem regular, normal and healthy so I'm just going to try. But I would welcome any similar experiences to help me understand how this might affect me.
Many thanks in advance to anyone else who may have suffered this!
MOG