Apologies, this is a bit of an epic - but if anyone can helped me sleuth out what's going on and where I'm at, I'd be very grateful indeed.
I'm 54, and have had painful periods since adolescence. Was put on the pill as a teenager to manage my difficult periods, stayed on it until about 40.
From coming off the pill, periods became increasingly painful and heavy again, crashing fatigue. Looking back I'm wondering if all this time I've maybe had endo or something, but it's always been just 'painful periods, oh well'.
By 47/48, finally accepted advice to try Mirena and it was life changing - fabulous. Bleeding pretty much stopped, very little pain. Glory, halleluja!
By then, I was also having peri symptoms - aching, fatigue, then hot flushes and disrupted sleep.
Started on Estrogel, with Mirena providing progesterone.
3-4 years later, started spotting more, pain more, itchy boobs - thought Mirena probably running out? Made appointment to have it removed but it had gone missing - took a year of delayed appointments before finally got a hysteroscopy to have it removed. Had been so stressful I thought I wouldn't have another one thank you.
Onto utrogestan with the estrogel. Cue hideous flooding again, like before Mirena. Decided to have new Mirena put in a couple of months later.
Since that one went in (or perhaps slightly before, really don't know) have had a brand new pain in lower right pelvic area. Absolutely relentless, really affected my mood.
Spotting every day, some period pain but not on any pattern I could discern. Plus this new very localised pain in lower right hand side. Had ultrasound, all looked fine but casually told (6 months after the scan) that I have adenomyosis.
Decided to have Mirena removed in case it was somehow causing this new pain. That was two months ago.
Since then - sadly no change. Still got the lower pelvic pain on right side, perhaps less often. Had flooding for a week when not on utrogestan, now taking utro for two weeks and feel groggy and low mood but not bleeding and less pain.
Any ideas on the following would be very welcome:
- am I peri or post - I no longer have any idea what my 'natural' cycle is or when I last had a 'normal' bleed
- would the three month regime be something to try?
- what the hell is this lower right pelvic pain? I'm wondering if it's endo, and I've never been diagnosed - although if it is, does that change anything?
Thank you to anyone who has read all this - it's actually been helpful to write it all down. Will cut and paste as prep for my next GP visit!