Last week I told you about the Novasure procedure I had back in 2008 that did not work. I met with my doctor yesterday and he and I went over the problems I’ve been having the last few months. Now my doctor is rather conservative, so if he can talk a patient out of surgery by finding an alternative, he will do that. I respect that about him. He’s also not a birth control pills pusher.
Options Other than Birth Control Pills
Because I had the Novasure procedure, I am unable to have that done again…which I wouldn’t want to do anyway (didn’t work once, why would I think it would work again, right?). The doctor mentioned birth control pills. I completely balked at that. When I took birth control pills when I was much younger, they made me feel AWFUL. But besides how they made me feel then, my doctor said that he feels those are not really a good option now either because of my issue with migraines. The birth control pills have the potential to make the migraines worse and more frequent. We don’t need that.
So then we talked about a hysterectomy. He does almost all of his procedures using the DaVinci Robot (read about it…it’s pretty neat). We talked about the risks of surgery; what happens if he gets started with the robot, but finds they can’t complete it that way; and whether I can keep my ovaries or not. During my pre-op appointment, he will do a scan to check things out, but he is pretty certain that I will be able to keep my ovaries (which I want to do).
What Will I Do?
However, now that I know all of this and I am waiting for the office to call me to schedule the pre-op appointment and the surgery, I’m scared. I’m scared about being put under; I’m scared about the cost of this surgery; I’m scared about what my recovery will be like; but most of all, I’m scared because I don’t know if I am making the right decision. One thing the doctor asked me was whether I could live with things the way they are. And sure…I guess I could, but should I? I had the Novasure procedure because I was in so much pain and my periods were so heavy. While I’m not to that point again, just yet…I’m heading in that direction. So is it better to go ahead and have the hysterectomy now, when I am younger or wait and see how things continue. What if I wait and things get much worse and the actual surgery is more complicated? I don’t know if that would or could happen, but I do wonder.
I hate thinking all the what if’s and I hate not having someone just tell me “you NEED to have this done”. That would be so much easier than me trying to weigh everything and figure out myself if I should based on whether I could live the way I am living.
So that’s where I’m at right now…waiting for the doctors office to call me and trying to figure everything out in my head.
I’m not sure why you’re having a hysterectomy – I didn’t click through to the Novasure link but I’ll tell you a little about me: I have severe (stage 4) endometriosis. I also have Adenomyosis and PCOS. I am a candidate for a hysterectomy. I also suffer from hormone-induced migraines and mood swings. After going Paleo, my chronic migraines completely went away. I wasn’t on birth control and I refused to be because I was afraid of them coming back. FF to 4 months ago: I went to see a new GYN because we have moved and it was time for my annual. We talked extensively about options and he doesn’t like to do surgery as a first option either. In addition to that, my surgery could be high-risk because of the extensive endometriosis that I have. SO he talked me into trying this brand new birth control pill. It is called Lo-Lo Estrin. It is the lowest dose Estrogen pill on the market. I started taking it about a month after he prescribed it and at that time there wasn’t even a generic pill for it (there is now). I have had one migraine since starting the pill and it’s been a full 3 months. That migraine happened the same day I ate donuts and pizza. I USED to have 3-4 migraines a week. No exaggeration. Your hormones are largely controlled by spikes in blood sugars due to the food we eat. I recommend trying the lo-lo-estrin pill, in addition to 100% eliminating inflammatory foods from your diet (grains and dairy). I’m trying to put the surgery off as long as I possibly can, by any method necessary, and it sounds like you want to maybe do the same so I wanted to offer my personal experience with this new pill. BC used to make me feel like crap too and we were certain that was what was causing the migraines. Plus, I’m horrible at remembering to take it. I now set an alarm on my phone and take it at the exact same time every day. The doctor wants me to take it for 3 months straight in order to only have one cycle per quarter. I haven’t started doing that yet, though I should because of my endometriosis. Let me know if you want to talk it out and hash through some things. Sounds like we might be in the same boat.
I understand how you feel. I had my hysterectomy when I was 35 – awful young, right? I had severe bleeding and pain that would last for 10 days. Then return again in 2 weeks.
I knew I couldn’t/didn’t want to have anymore children, but was a bit sad when the I knew the decision was actually taken out of my hands after the surgery. But the fact that I never had to have another period was AWESOME!!
I did leave my ovaries because of my age, so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the hormone issues and have only over the last couple of years started to feel the symptoms of menopause (I’m 47 now).
I also get severe migraines so I cannot take HRT – I deal with the symptoms which really aren’t that bad as of yet.
Good luck with your decision, if you’d like to talk more, please feel free to email or FB me anytime. HUGGLES!
Hope you are feeling more at ease with your decision making now that a few days have gone by. Hugs