Women’s health
A British woman who had her period for four months has told how her menstrual cycles were ruining her life.
Izzy Hawksworth, 21, suffers from excruciating cramps, becomes very bloated and has extremely heavy periods that can last anywhere from five days to a few months.
Almost every type of birth control made her sick, and she once had periods that lasted four months while she had the implant.
Izzy underwent ultrasounds, MRIs and laproscopy – a surgical procedure used to examine a woman’s pelvic organs and stomach – to find the cause of her symptoms.
But her test came back negative for endometriosis, a disease in which the tissue lining grows outside the uterus, and for adenomyosis, where it grows in the muscular lining of the uterus.
Doctors also thought Izzy might have a chronic condition called pelvic congestion syndrome or uterine arteriovenous formations, a rare cause of heavy bleeding.
But she also tested negative, which confused doctors and left Izzy feeling “alone” and like she was the only person in the world experiencing these mysterious pains.
Izzy, a writer from Sheffield, South York, said: “In some ways I feel quite alone because no one understands how I feel.
“None of my friends or family have rules like mine, so I feel like it’s just me in this situation.
“I’m also petrified that I’ll decide I want a baby in the future, but then have fertility problems because of all my symptoms.
“I feel like my period is ruining my life: I’m in constant pain and there’s nothing I can do to relieve the pain.
“My cramps even wake me up at night and I’m so bloated that I sometimes look pregnant.
“It also affects my mental health a lot – I’m constantly looking in the mirror and crying because I can’t believe I’ll have to live with this forever.
“I’m doing my best to continue living my life normally, but it’s so difficult having to go everywhere with a hot water bottle on my stomach.”
Izzy started having painful periods when she was just 11 and started using the birth control patch when she was 16.
Since then, she has tried many types of pills, implants and injections, but they all made her bleed irregularly and caused her severe pain.
After repeatedly asking her general practitioner to refer her to a gynecologist, she was forced to seek private care through her father’s health insurance.
Izzy said: “The doctors never listened to me about my symptoms.
“I was making an appointment with them because I was bleeding and they were just making me change the type of birth control I was on.
“I had an implant and it completely ruined my life – I had my period for months and never had a break.
“I felt like my pain was constantly being ignored, I was begging them to refer me and they wouldn’t.
“They only agreed to refer me when they realized I had tried every type of contraception available and they couldn’t give me anything else. »
Izzy has now been told she needs to try and find a type of birth control that will help her manage her periods.
But she added: “I had an appointment with the surgeon and he asked me about my fertility plans.
“I’m 21, I don’t plan on having a child anytime soon.
“I basically have to manage my symptoms until I decide to have a baby, because they said my period might get better after that – but that just seems impossible to do.
“I don’t know how I can survive another 10 years of feeling this way, it actually seems impossible.”
Janet Lindsay, chief executive of Wellbeing of Women, says women have been dismissed due to period pain for “far too long”.
She said: “For too long, women and girls have been dismissed despite experiencing severe pain and heavy bleeding that can disrupt their lives, relationships, schools and careers.
“They are not receiving the treatment, care and emotional support they need to manage these common but debilitating problems, despite the existence of effective treatment options.
“Our ‘Just a Period’ campaign aims to tackle the unacceptable normalization of heavy and painful periods, and ensure that good information and education is available to everyone who needs it.
News Source : nypost.com
Gn Health
