Endometrial Ablation

[GirlsonFilm]

Hello Ladies, I suffered from very heavy periods for the past three years (since the birth of my children). I've had a coil since January in an attempt to stem the flow, but have bled every day (only light but blood nevertheless) and in the past week have an old style period ie very heavy. Someone has suggested an endometrial ablation as another potential solution, however a friend found that it only lasted for 6months and then back to square one. So my question is has anyone had this done and did it work, if so how long did it last. I'm 42 and we've completed our family. Thanks GoF

I had an ablation done two years ago and it worked very well and still is. I have much lighter, shorter periods now, no more awful flooding so am very pleased I had it done.

I have heard that the endometrium starts to grow back after a few years, but will cross that bridge when I come to it.

There are quite a few success stories in the general health section too.

I had a novasure done in March 2006 and a sectional ablation done in September 2012 and ever since than I have had nothing but problems. I have a heavy horrible cycle every 2 weeks. I am so upset. Instead of making things better it made things worse. Now I have to get everything removed. Any advice on how to deal with this? I have never really had any cramps but always very very heavy cycles now I have cramps and extremelly heavy cycles. Can anybody explain to me why things got worse instead of better.

Also the novasure worked excellent for the 5 years hardly any cycles or bleeding at all, than all the sudden back to heavy bleeding. Thats why it was decided to try the sectional ablation but to our surprise it made things horrible.

I had the microwave ablation three years ago which didn't work. Or rather it worked just enough to bring my blood count up to acceptable, which as far as the consultant was concerned counted as a "success". IMO, which I shared with him, the bar for success is, on that basis, set pretty low.

I have had no relief from the "social" problems i.e. the flooding. While I accept that I may be losing less blood overall, as evidenced by the improved blood count, I am still losing it all at once, meaning that the detrimental impact on my life hasn't changed.

The consultant's answer is to repeat the ablation cos like we all know, when something doesn't work, you just keep doing it to see if it will eventually work don't you? Don't you? No? Just him then .

Oh, and in an ultrasound 18 months post op, the ultrasound tech woman said she could see no sign that I had had the ablation, my womb lining looked normal apart from some small fibroids and if she hadn't had my notes she wouldn't have known I'd had the op.

I had one and my periods stopped completely. I had a hysterectomy in the summer due to the lining of my womb growing too big and having periods that went into the wall of my womb, resulting in adenomyosis. I think the ablation was to blame. I wasn't aware that it grew back tbh .

I had one in November. Absolutely brilliant. No bleeding since. I hope it lasts. It's changed my life.

I'm booked to have the Nova Sure ablation on 28th. I'm trying to research whether or not it's a good idea.

I have regular, but heavy,painful periods with lots of clots (sorry if tmi). I take tranexamic acid, mefanamic acid and co-codamol just to get to work. I'm worried the ablation could make things worse and lead to a hysterectomy...

rachael you must make your own decision. Where I went wrong in my process was in focussing on the very high success rates claimed for EA. Not unreasonably I assumed that I would be one of the 98% who describe themselves as "satisfied" with the outcome up to 2 years post-op. I hoped that I would be one of the 25-30% whose periods stop immediately.

Sadly, I am one of the 2% who regard their procedure as unsuccessful, although I am at odds with my consultant over that as we have differing views as to what constitutes success.

Medically, he says that I count as a success because my polyps have been removed and my anaemia has resolved. However, when I took my problem to my GP, I was seeking an improvement in the flooding which was so bad that I organised my life around my period.

I had no idea that I had polyps and nor did I know I was anaemic, so the op has solved two problems I didn't know I had and not the one I was complaining about. To all intents and purposes, my life is just the same now as pre-op, but my op was a "success".

If I was in your position now, I would be asking the surgeon two questions:

1. Define what "success" looks like.
2. How conservatively do you act?

The reason for q2 is that it was only at the 6 month check up, when I said I wasn't happy with my outcome, that my world renowned inter uterine specialist bothered to tell me that he "acts very conservatively", doing the minimum necessary to resolve symptoms while preserving as much tissue as possible . Had I known that from the start, I might have gone elsewhere, but he's reckoned to be the best so he was my guy.

He's an authority on preserving the womb - but I don't want mine preserved! It's neither use nor flipping ornament!

i had it done at 38 for similar reasons. the bonus being that as part of the procedure they also put a mirena in to stop it recurring. brilliant results.

Thank you Carabos.

I've only just got back on mn and read your reply

I had it done, 70 seconds (I read my notes). So far I've had lots of pain, a fair bit of blood, fluid and clots and I feel wiped out from the GA. I felt like a bit of a baby in hospital asking for pain relief, I've read all the experiences on here and most say there was little or no pain! I gave birth twice with no pain relief and that was ok so I'm no wimp, but I was in a lot if pain for at least 24 hours.

I'll have to wait and see if it worked. I'm due on about now so it'll be a month before I notice.