They want to destroy my daughters cervix for heavy periods

Hi dickydolly, I am sorry to hear of your daughter. I too was anemic due to heavy flo from fibroids. It took a lonnnng time for me to decide to have an IUD put in (merina)
About 3 months after that I prolapsed. I don't know if it related to the IUD or not, but it did stop the bleeding COMPLETELY.
Now I can learn how to effectively correct my prolapse.

This is not LIFE threatening!!! It is manageable WITHOUT surgery.

I hope this helps a little.

pro12

Hi dickydolly – Everything I know about ablation is from chapter 22 of Nora Coffey’s book, The “H” Word. It’s very scary. Just a few excerpts:

“The idea is to scar the endometrium so it can’t proliferate. The problem is, even though it is permanently scarred, the uterus still tries to perform its natural functions. The natural engorgement of blood still occurs, but the lining of the uterus can’t build up after it’s been burned. Because it can’t build up, there is nothing to shed, so the uterus remains engorged with nowhere for the blood to go. That may initially only cause a feeling of fullness in the pelvis, but after a few months of this abnormally-induced suppression of menstruation, many women experience constant, debilitating pain.

“The additional risks include possible perforation of the uterus, bowel, or bladder, infection, hemorrhage, thermal injuries to the uterus and other organs, fluid overload, and death.

“There is no remedy for the problems cause by ablation, because you can’t unscar the uterus. The symptoms often worsen with each menstrual cycle because of the unreleased engorgement of blood, so by the end of the first or second year following ablation, a lot of women are told that hysterectomy is the only option to get relief.” - The “H” Word

Dickydolly, I hope that you and your daughter find a solution. The fact that there are doctors out there who think women should be having things like this done to them, makes me shudder. It makes me want to cry. - Surviving

LOTS more research. Just don't go in a have surgery, EVER. Unless of course it is to save your life.

Hi dickydolly

Endometrial ablation is normally the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, not the cervix. Is it the cervix that the doctor is talking about? And is he talking about literally destroying the cervix? Just thought I would clarify this.

When a doctor tells us something 'horrible' often we reach out to them and ask them to 'save' us from the sickness calamity they have just given us as a 'sentence', without question, and want it over as soon as possible, without having to worry about it for any longer, and to be rid immediately of the symptoms that are out immediate concern, regardless of the cost. This is a form of burying the head in the sand. Our impetuosity becomes our enemy, stopping us from finding the information that would otherwise allow us to make a good judgement before giving our consent for the procedure. I am so glad your daughter is now thinking more clearly and looking at other options.

A friend of mine was talked into endometrial ablation about twelve months ago, her doctor describing it as a minor day procedure. She is perimenopausal, which your daughter may or may not be. She looked very pale, and was not feeling good for several months afterwards, and now regrets having it. I thought she looked early pregnant in that time, though clearly she was not. She developed slight, and annoying urinary incontinence a few months later, and feels it was as a result of the procedure, but it could well be a part of perimenopause that is unrelated. I have no idea. My conclusion is that it might be a minor procedure for the doctor but that is no guarantee that it is minor for the woman!

As your daughter is having migraines as well as the heavy bleeding there may be something else going on. Your post indicated that the migraines have been long term, but you don't say whether or not they are menstrual cycle related. You don't say how long the heavy periods have been occurring, ie whether the migraines and heavy periods are related.

Generally straightforward heavy bleeding during menopause is of a limited duration, and seems to be a part of normal menopause, before the monthly bleeding subsides and becomes less frequent. Iron deficiency needs to be dealt with in the meantime and can be dealt with by supplements, but it is important to get the type of iron supplement that does not cause constipation. Constipation will aggravate many conditions, including menstrual discomfort and prolapse.

There may be some hormone-related reason for both, ie some abnormal inflammation that affects her 'head' and her uterus, and maybe other body functions.

If she doesn't want the ablation and doesn't want an IUD (and it is not straightforward transient perimenopause bleeds) she may still be able to get her hormones to behave better by a combination of diet and lifestyle modifications. I have just read Christiane Northrup's Wisdom of Menopause, and also have her book Womens Bodies Womens Wisdom. I wish I had read the former when I was her age. It would have saved my much anxiety about the weird things my body was doing for fifteen years prior to the end of menses, and given me some well-grounded starting points for dealing with them. The latter book is also a treasure, especially re the connection between our emotional wellbeing and our physical health.

It sounds like the menopause continuum may not treat her kindly. She may be able to borrow either or both of these books from a public library but I would recommend the menopause book in particular at her stage of life.

Her solution may not be straightforward but it will be worth her investigating further.

BTW, has she done a dairy and/or other elimination diet to investigate dietary sensitivities? She may need to tackle this from several different directions.

Louise

I'm sorry for your daughter.. But is there no other way? I mean it is not good to take the risk especially because we aren't sure about the procedure.

My comment here is not prolapse related but I felt compelled to comment about migraines.

My son in law used to have very severe migraines that became so frequent, that ultimately I feared for his life.
He had an allergy to mold - a rotten apple, a moldy bit of bread, all kinds of situations. My daughter and I were always cleaning and trying all kinds of methods to keep mold at bay.

One day, my daughter was at the chiropractors with her husband. They mentioned the mold allergy to the chiro. The chiro manipulated my son in laws facial bones with a audible crack. He has not had a single migraine for over 6 months now.

Mold allergy can cause real problems for some people.

Gardengirl, can you clarify this? It sounds more like they figured out that it wasn't a mold allergy after all (if it was alleviated by chiropractor manipulation). - Surviving

Gardengirl, After what I have just learned about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve systems in Christiane Northrup's book, and the fact that these nerve systems travel down through the spinal column to reach their relevant organs, and spinal manipulation was involved in his cure, I can see how an allergy could be involved.

I can see that he still would still be sensitive to mold, but because now his immune system is being stimulated less and calmed more, the sensitivity is not manifesting itself in a full-blown allergy reaction that previously gave him migraines.

Dickydolly, has your daughter tried a good chiropractor? My daughter too has had a miracle recovery (from bladder and bowel incontinence), when she was a young child, so we too have had an unlikely cure as a result of chiropractic treatment. Mind you, I temper that by saying that I have also experienced one incidence of inappropriate, costly and painful chiropractic treatment for a back injury myself, so chiropractors are a twin-edged sword for me. Mind you, I did recover from that treatment, and have suffered no ongoing problems from it.

Louise

Hi there,
I too suffer from severe anaemia due to fibroids and constant bleeding, I was down to an hb of 6.7 for about a year with a ferritin level of 1 before that I was always very low in iron. I now take Spatone which are sachets of iron rich water (when I was really low I took 4 a day) and within 6 months I have gone up to an hb of 11.5 and a ferritin of 8 and the bonus is that my periods have become a little lighter too which they say can happen when your anaemia improves so double bonus.
I have been offered ablation and a hormone coil but have refused them as they don't know the long term effects on our bodies. They want me to have a hysterectomy but I won't go forward on that either as I already have a prolapse (possibly all 3) and I think that we need as much of our body left intact as possible, it all has a purpose.
Have you looked into diet for the migraines, I suffer them too but they have improved 99% since I became Vegan and included lots of greens.
I hope everything turns out well for your Daughter x x

Hi Surviving
My son in law had a very definite allergic reaction to mold including penicillin. Sometimes, he could touch something and it would cause a rash and itching other times, within in minutes he would get a migraine which could last 3 days.

He used to play grid iron football and other contact sports as well as having a few accidents. It fits in with Louise's reading as per her post. He probably still is allergic to mold but the nerve pathways for dealing with it were blocked. Before the chiro treatment, I suggested to my daughter that she massage her husband's face. She discovered that his face was quite sensitive to touch.

There are good chiros and not so good.

I believe that it is possible that other allergies including asthma, could possibly in some instances benefit from this particular manipulation. It might be possible that any number of injuries to the head, including during birth, might be a factor in allergies and asthma. That is my theory tho the chiro agrees with me.

I could wipe this chiro's feet with my hair if I had long enough hair!

after eliminating caffeine and dairy my pms migraines disappeared. also my menstrual cramps.
a good read might be 'foods that fight pain'. changed my life...since adopting a mostly vegan diet, my fibromyalgia flareups have decreased by about 90%.

there is much wisdom out there, medical doctors know some, but when their recommendations sound so scary and brutal, its not a bad idea to search elsewhere and see what you find. sometimes the scary is the best option, but why not have choices? and going in with advance understanding of negative consequences is a good idea to, just to keep expectations realistic.

much luck to your dd