Endometrial Ablation Help Please

[AblationQ]

Hi,
Just wondered if anyone has experience of private, ‘elective’ endometrial ablation?

History is always had very painful and heavy-ish periods. Had a couple of kids and am now in a cycle of
Get pregnant
Breastfeed
Period returns
Periods start off not so bad and gradually get worse until I conceive.

Currently my periods are not all that painful at all. I tend to need regular painkillers for a couple of days and get left with a constant dull ache / heaviness. This is much better than the excruciating pain I had in my younger years - often ending in vomiting.

My bigger issue now is my flow. Overall, I wouldn’t say I lose excessive blood over the course of a period but it often flits between nothing to suddenly filling a pad or tampon in minutes - literally feels like I’m weeing myself. I find internal protection difficult because I’m either removing empty tampons (ouch and tss risk) or using a mooncup which I find adds to the general ache in my pelvis. Not to mention, I don’t know when a mooncup is suddenly full. I feel like just a pad isn’t enough though and the sudden gushing is 🤢.

Anyway, I can’t imagine I’d get an ablation on the NHS - does anyone with experience think a private dr would agree?

Hormonal contraception doesn’t agree with me and I’ve been advised against a coil in the past as I have a bicornuate uterus and I would (apparently) require sedation or GA and TWO coils!

Am also aware that if and when I did get one it would mean no more children.

I had an ablation. But they missed that I had adenomyosis, so made my whole situation so much worse. I ended up needing a hysterectomy.
Be careful OP, please look very carefully at all your options, but good luck.

Sedation and two coils sounds minor in comparison!

I’ve long said I want a hysterectomy once I’m done having children. I’m incredibly grateful to my uterus for growing my two healthy children, but other than that it has caused me no end of grief (the above is an abridged version of events.)
I don’t expect anyone is going to give me a hysterectomy though!

The coil option worries me because if I don’t get on with them, how much trouble will they be to get back out? It seems hard enough to get a nurse to take out one, let alone a dr to do a complicated removal.

I’ve pm’d you

I got ablation on the NHS for heavy periods. 7 days of heavy flow and being anaemic. Had scans to check out there was nothing else going on. I also had a period every 21 days at this point.

Flooding overnight, tranexamic acid didn't help much as you only take it for 3 days then I would just flood again.

Gave me my life back.

Still need to use contraception though as it's still possible to get pregnant which is then dangerous. They sterilised me at the same time.

I had endometrial ablation on the NHS a few years ago, no idea if it's still offered or if it depends on what area of the country you're in? I had really heavy flow, was in my late 40s at the time. I can honestly say it was the best thing I ever did, no periods at all for a few years and now only very light. Absolutely fantastic for me.

That sounds like it was very hard for you @RandomMess. It’s not that bad for me so don’t think the nhs would help me.

I don’t think I am anaemic as I don’t have a history of it - in pregnancy for example. I feel like pure shit on my period but I think that’s because of the disturbed nights and the stress rather than the physical effects of blood loss because the general grogginess doesn’t last the whole month.

@Moorlander Im only early 30s and the thought of potentially another 20 years, including the general fuckery of menopause fills me with UTTER dread.

I had ablation surgery as a private patient due to uncontrollable continuous bleeding. I ended up going private in the end due to lack of help from the NHS.

Endometriosis can cause both severe pain and heavy bleeding to arise. This may well be the reason why your periods have been as described. As this is usually diagnosed via laparoscopic surgery it may well have not been considered by a GP so it gets missed.

I suspect I do have some element of endometriosis @AttilaTheMeerkat

The fact that I controlled the bleeding and pain with the pill in my late teens, then have some respite after a pregnancy / during breastfeeding points to a hormonal issue. I also suffered with hyperemesis gravidarum in my pregnancies. My body seems to be VERY sensitive to estrogen.

I know an ablation won’t solve the hormonal issues but it would hopefully help symptoms.

Quite frankly, I welcome menopause. I’m at my best when breastfeeding (which yes, oxytocin) but also the low levels of hormones with little to no cyclical fluctuations suits me much better.

ditto.

ETA - I had a long road to get to the end and I'm not actually there yet, 18 months of Zoladex and HRT - came off it because you can only stay on it so long for various reasons. Signed Hysterectomy forms a couple of months ago, I need to get something else out of the way before I have it done.

No big deal waiting lists where I live, I can literally say I'd like to fix a date for surgery and I am told it will happen within 6 weeks at the outside. Whether that is to do with my particular case or not I don't know.

But ablation isn't to be done lightly. I ended up in constant pain after mine failed, shoving naproxen down my throat like they were sweeties to allow me to work. Next Zoladex, now hysterectomy. Obviously wish I had just gone for a hysterectomy in the first place 5 years ago.

I had an ablation last April, via the NHS not privately.
I had actually asked for an ablation as my friend had one 5 years ago and said it was the best thing she’d ever had done.
After years and years of heavy, flooding periods which I also (sorry if tmi) would pass clots through size of my palms and limping through 2 years with ferritin levels of just 3 (thanks GP for letting me suffer for so long), I begged for an ablation and iron infusions.
The procedure was fine, I was awake for the whole thing and was in and out of the hospital within a couple of hours.
However, afterwards I still ended up with regular, fairly heavy(ish) periods. The gynaecologist said to give it up to 6 months and sure enough on around the 6/7th post-ablation period they tapered down to virtually nothing more than a day or two of spotting which is obviously great but it seems that I’ve had to trade the heavy bleeding for awful pain during this time now. Some months it feels like my insides are in metal traps, the pain is just awful.
I am hoping amongst all hope that it isn’t post ablation syndrome. I have been waiting to see the gynaecologist to discuss this but in typical NHS style I’ve been waiting since January when I first reported this to my GP and have no idea when I will get an appointment, so if you can afford to go privately I would definitely do so, simply to be able to gain quicker follow up appointments if need be.
I am starting to wonder if I may have actually always had endometriosis as my sister was diagnosed a few years ago at 44. I have had gynae issues since I started my periods at 12. I’m now 50.
I don’t know how old you are but the gynaecologist tell me the nearer to menopause the better for ablation as it has a higher failure rate of the lining growing back the younger the woman is.

I had an ablation in 2017, and it did work, but only for a couple of years. I didn't want a hysterectomy as I didn't feel I could recover with a young family.

I had a hysterectomy a few weeks ago and I
had a textbook recovery. But my youngest is also 8, the kids are quite autonomous and my mum is now retired so could help.

If I had my time over, I would have had the hysterectomy when it was initially offered, but I did what I could, at that time.

Sorry, meant to say I am
Not in the UK so mine was done privately. Do you have insurance?

Hi everyone.

I will try to keep this as short as I can.

I had an endometrial resection 4 years ago due to horrendous periods. I haven't had a period since, but the last few months I have been getting very intense pain, like a bad period pain. Intermittent and usually eased with pain killers and a hot water bottle.
The last few days I have been experiencing it again and have a very pale peachy/white discharge.

My womb is retroflex and a GP said it appears I have adenomyosis (heavy/boggy were words used in my scans). I also have a mirena coil which was inserted incorrectly and is now permanently stuck in the muscle wall (6 years) - they attempted to remove it at my resection but they couldn't see it. It was later spotted on an MRI.

So, yep - a bit complicated.

But I just want to know if anyone's periods came back years after a resection, if anyone has a stick coil which later causes problems etc. I will be calling my GP but wanted to hear your thoughts/experiences.

Thanks in advance
K x