I'm 24 and have the contraceptive implant. Ever since having this, I have had little to no bleeding and no indication whatsoever that I should even be having a period. It has quite honestly been amazing for the last 4 years. However today, rather out of the blue, I noticed a familiar pain and when I went to the toilet I noticed that I had bled. Not a lot, but enough that you'd describe it as more than just spotting. I'm less interested in why this has happened (as I know sometimes this just happens for no good reason when using the implant) and more interested in trying to figure out what my pain is all about as A LOT of doctors over the last 10+ years have not been able to figure it out.. or been good enough to.
You see, ever since starting my period, I have been plagued - usually every other month - by fairly severe pain (enough to send you to bed for an entire day and make you feel quite sick). As I say, it's usually every other month and always in the lower right of my abdomen, I can usually feel the pain right through to my back. It's sharp and makes everywhere surrounding ache. I can always tell when my period is about to start as this pain starts first. I went to the doctors a fair old amount when I was in high school due to this pain as it often took me out of school for a day or two. Every time I went they'd do a blood and urine test, schedule an ultrasound etc and the results would all come back normal (barring a few occasions when the ultrasound tech couldn't even find one of my ovaries). Whenever I went the next time, they'd act like it was the first time they'd been hearing about my pain and would start the process all over again, never getting any further in the process of diagnosing my pain. I eventually gave up going to the doctors when I was about 17, spent the next few years in agony, and then got the implant (after which, the pain and my periods stopped, almost completely). The furthest I got was my parents taking me to hospital because I just could not bare the pain and me spending a week there as they feared my appendix might burst. Once the pain had eased by the end of the week, they sent me home with antibiotics and told me I had a kidney infection.
My question is, is the implant masking the pain to a thing I really ought to be pushing to get to the bottom of? For the sake of my fertility, for example. Has anyone else experienced this very predictable, very painful pain? What should I do? What do you think it is? Is it just standard painful periods? Why is it every other month and always on the right?
Help :(