Why I Zapped My Uterus: My Novasure Decision
For reasons I will explain, I decided to undergo NovaSure Endometrial Ablation in my 40s.Â
As a blogger, I believe there is a fine line between sharing to inform and just plain over sharing; however, when I was trying to make my decision, I was frustrated by the lack of personal accounts I could find online.
(Did you expect me to blast a Facebook status update asking friends and colleagues? I think not!)
Oh sure, I found some random message boards but no one really told me what the experience was like and why they chose to undergo the procedure.
With the belief that by telling my story I may help another woman make her decision and ease her fears, I am sharing my personal story about why I chose to have the NovaSure Endometrial Ablation procedure.
These are all my personal observations and shouldn’t take place of any medical advice and information your doctor provides.
I’m also going to be honest.
So if you get grossed out, you may want to reconsider reading this and look at pictures of cute puppies instead.
This is the first post about the Novasure procedure. Visit I Zapped My Uterus Part II get the rest of the story.
Is My Period My Friend?
Getting your period can be an exciting time in a girl’s life.
It certainly was for me.
But it didn’t stay that way for long.
By high school I was on medication for pain and sometimes missed school I had such awful and heavy periods.
I suffered through them needlessly, but then a miracle happened.
Well, not exactly a miracle but rather The Pill.
Within months it transformed my periods from monthly monsters to a manageable roommate.
Sure, I was adding hormones to my body, but the benefits from The Pill greatly outweighed any side effects I experienced.
When I finally got around to having children in my 30s, I was happy to see this daily pill go away.
And, to be honest, it felt good to finally be off it.
What didn’t feel good was I started having heavier periods again.
Nothing like in high school, but they definitely made their presence known.
Heavy Period Takes Over
After my second child was born, I knew I was done having children but chose not to go back on the pill.
I didn’t feel comfortable adding more chemicals and hormones into my body.
So every month, I suffered through heavy periods, worshipped my heating pad and downed Advil like it was going out of style.
But then things started taking a turn for the worse.
As women, we all get used to the idea that periods are something we just have to deal with.
Half of the world’s population deals with this during their life, after all.
But what I never heard anyone talk about is what happens when you just can’t deal with your periods anymore?
What happens when they are no longer a severe inconvenience but rather begin running your life?
When my periods starting becoming too much, I had already switched to the heavy duty tampons and pads.
Within an hour, I had easily soaked through either.
Over the next year, not even a combo of pads and tampons could make a difference.
The best way I can describe this is like someone had turned on a faucet.
The blood would literally fall out of me like running water.
Within a second, I would easily soak my underwear, pants and whatever chair or couch I happened to be sitting on.
I did a lot of laundry and deep furniture cleaning.
While I had naturally always had heavy periods, my physician told me it’s not unusual for women’s periods to become that much more so after having kids.
See! Yet another “benefit” of having children!
In the beginning, bleeding through might happen once a day for up to a week.
My period became an enemy that I had to contend with.
Not only was I losing a ridiculous amount of blood each month, but I was afraid to leave the house!
I would armor up just to go pick up my son from school before quickly returning to the house.
I was horrified and embarrassed each time it happened at home.
I managed to hide the issues from my kids only because my husband and I make such a great team.
He knew the look from me and herded the kids while I dealt with this.
During my last period, I bled out three times in a 24 hour period.
I was done!
And while I’m on the subject of my husband, there’s nothing like killing the mood and connection between two people then having to fight your wife’s period.
It was an intruder and third person in our marriage, dictating aspects of our lives no one should have a say in, thank you very much!
Why I Zapped My Uterus
When something becomes so intrusive you just can’t function, it’s time to take action.
I went to my OB/GYN and said I had had it.
I started blurting out all of the reasons I didn’t think I could go through another period again.
And it turns out I fit all of the criteria for why someone would consider having the NovaSure procedure, according to my physician and the NovaSure manufacturers:
- My periods were affecting my quality of life.
- I was significantly bothered by the amount of bleeding and pain that I had during my period.
- My period made made feel unbelievably moody (Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde kind of moody) and tired to the bone.
- My life would improve if I could decrease or completely eliminate my periods.
- I was done with having children and did not want any more in the future.
While all of the criteria are important, the huge one is you have to be sure you’re done having children.
After the procedure, it is not safe to get pregnant.
For me, this wasn’t a problem.
The only way we were going to have a new child in the house is if the universe personally plopped one down in my lap; otherwise, we were done.
NovaSure Sounds Better Than Endometrial Ablation
I won’t say that the procedure didn’t scare the bejesus out of me.
Who willingly blasts their uterus?
And don’t even get me started about having general anesthesia.
But I think you would have to be in serious denial if you weren’t.
Every procedure always carries a risk.
Once I started talking with my mom about this issue, I discovered my grandmother had had the same problem and eventually had to have a hysterectomy.
I am so thankful there are better options out there.
I chose NovaSure because it would possibly decrease if not completely stop my periods without affecting my hormones.
When I went to the NovaSure site, I found fluffed up language about heavy periods and pictures of a woman relaxing on the beach.
But I had a hard time finding more hard core information, which is the whole reason I’m writing to you today.
I wanted to understand that I wasn’t crazy in thinking my periods were out of control or just being a complete wimp.
My periods were out of hand and I wanted someone to echo what I was feeling and experiencing before I took the leap to doing something about it.
Ladies, I’ll tell you that, in my opinion, the NovaSure marketing team has done a great job in making this look like a simple, easy procedure.
And, to be honest, now that I’m through it, it was a relatively “easy” procedure when you consider the radical change it could have on your life.
But don’t fool yourself into making this decision lightly.
For marketing purposes, they are calling this procedure NovaSure, but it truly is an endometrial ablation where you are burning away the lining of your uterus.
This procedure is not designed for the person who just doesn’t like their periods or isn’t sure they’re done having kids (and is prepared to manage birth control properly).
This is a permanent change you’re making to your body.
Granted, for some of us, this is the right pathway to take.
Only you and your doctor can make that decision.
This is the Part I about the Novasure procedure. Visit me at I Zapped My Uterus Part II to get the rest of the story.
Thank you for this! I’m only 21 but I’ve had extremely heavy periods my whole life. Even on the pill. Now I’m experiencing extreme cervical pain that has been an issue for the past year or so. At first it was believed I had an ovarian cyst and that was the cause of the pain, but now any traces of cysts are gone and I’m still in pain. My intimate life has gone down the drain.
I will definitely be considering this after having children. Do you know if this is also a solution for endometriosis?
I haven’t seen any literature that says it’s a solution for endometriosis. I think it’s definitely something worthwhile asking your doctor about though.
Thanks for sharing your story! I had the same exact problem. For one or two days a month I was not able to go anywhere or do anything due to the flood that would hit. I ended up having a hysterectomy because my doctor didn’t think the Novasure would fix my problems 100%. He did leave my ovaries so no hormone replacement. The funny thing is that it has help my hormones considerably. Thanks again for sharing and I hope your story will help someone else make the decision to set herself free from the burden of “Aunt Flow” and her evil ways.
Flood is a great way to explain it. I’m hoping that this will help manage the problem of the heavy periods and that I won’t need a hysterectomy down the line.
I went through the same thing after my second child was born. I was so weak from all the blood loss that I was downing Red Bull just to get through a day. I also did the Novasure procedure. Unfortunately, I’m always that tiny percentage that they mention in ads, etc. ha ha. I didn’t work and I was back to bleeding just a month or two after the procedure. We knew were done having children so I went ahead and had a hysterectomy. I’m glad you shared your story here because I agree about there not being any personal accounts out there.
Ugh. I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work for you. Being in that 1% sure does suck… it’s happened to me in a couple other departments! But I can’t imagine having to go through a hysterectomy afterward. I hope it was the right step for you and made a big difference.
Very interesting! I have known two women who have had this process-or something like it-done for the same reason. Many had a hard time dealing with it, took them a long time to feel like a “woman” again even though they already had several beautiful children and were done having kids. Did you feel any effects like this?
It’s only been a couple of weeks but I feel like myself again. What will make the huge difference is if I’m not ruled by my periods anymore. That will help me start feeling like a woman again and not feeling gross and out of sorts all of the time.
I respect you for doing the study and figuring out what was right for you. I never want to go on birth control again either, so if I was having those issues, I would look for something like this as well. Thankfully, I haven’t had any problems.
Thanks for linking up with the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party. I have pinned your post to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Board!
Thanks, Tammy! Always love linking up, and I really felt like more women should be aware of the NovaSure option.
Great post! I think it’s important to share your personal experiences as a blogger. It really provides the honest, personal opinion that you cannot find from the source! Thanks much!
We have so much in common!! I went through the same periods in junior high and high school. I was put on prescription pain medication but my mother refused to allow me to take “the pill.” In her words she was sure I would start to sleep around. After our fourth child…and our last….for a few years my periods lasted weeks and were so heavy I couldn’t even leave the house on days because I would bleed through in less then 30 minutes. It was terrible and I was so miserable. I didn’t want to add more chemicals to my body and finally found a wonderful doctor who told me I didn’t have to do this for the rest of my life. I had my ablation when I was 33 and it was the best thing I have ever done. If any women is suffering this way she should know there is more then just living with it or having a complicated major surgery.
Wonderful post!!
Laura @ Mice IN The Kitchen
Thanks for sharing up your story here. It’s too early to tell for me but I’m hoping that this procedure will do the trick.
I had heavy periods when I was younger. Thankfully, it’s settled down.
Don’t worry about oversharing. Women need to talk about these things and remove the stigma. Starting at age 11, I had horrendously heavy periods, like my mother before me. I was on birth control 5 years before I ever had sex, and it did reduce the bleeding. By the time I hit 30, I was concerned about what all those hormones might be doing to my body. For some years I had no period at all, then light ones but eventually ones so heavy that I couldn’t leave the house for a week or two out of the month. Last year I went to a gynecologist to ask about procedures like this one, but he found an ovarian cyst and recommended a hysterectomy. I’ve never wanted children, so I was delighted, and I don’t regret losing my periods forever in the least! I had a lot of internal bleeding from the operation, however, and needed 3 transfusions while fluttering on the verge of death. Also caught pneumonia in the hospital which required multiple rounds of antibiotics and was hella painful. So I guess what I’m saying is, a procedure like this might be safer and do the trick, but I don’t regret getting the complete hysterectomy and cervix removed because I’ll never have to have another pap smear.
Wow — that sounds like quite an ordeal. But in the end it worked out. I’m keeping my fingers crossed this procedure does the trick for me.
Thank you for sharing your story. I have PCOS, so if I was not on the pill I was irregular and when it came, it came like thunder. I still have issues, but nothing as severe as yours. Sharing can be an amazing thing. You’ll be glad you did!
Thank you for posting on the Pintastic Pinteresting Party. I appreciate you sharing your story. I had similar issues and had endometriosis. At that time there were 3 options: 1. Get pregnant, if you can, 2) Take hormones 3) Have a hysterectomy. We opted for getting pregnant and were blessed to get pregnant immediately (after coming off the pill). Ultimately, though, the hysterectomy became a necessity.
I appreciate you sharing these most intimate details in the hopes of helping someone else. Thank you for your courage.
This post was a tough post to write but I felt it was so important because many women just don’t talk about this stuff! I’m so pleased at all the feedback… and the fact that some women who didn’t know this was an option learned they might be able to get help.
They wanted me to get a hysterectomy at 37 and I had not had any kid so I opted for the Mirena. My “normal” cycle was a flood at ever 13 days and I could not take it anymore.
I experience heavy periods, and more painful periods after having my daughter. Thank you for sharing your post.
Glad to. No one talked about this with me and I’m thrilled other women are learning this is an option.
I had an ablation at 40 yrs of age, in 2004. Never had another period after that! And now I’m peri menopausal. Best decision ever! Only one day after for recovery, then back to work…would’ve had to miss a lot of work if I’d had a hysterectomy!
Hi Jen, Just wondering if you have or any of your girls on this site put on weight after the novasure ?? I have read lots of stories of weight gain .
Nope… didn’t gain anything from the procedure.
I was just to my OB/gyno today for the same reasons! She suggested that the novasure was the best choice for me as well. I’m currently on the waiting list and could take anywhere between 3-6 months before I can have this procedure done!
I’m 36…..and wondering at what age did you have your procedure done at?
Also I have two beautiful children so we are for sure done having babies?
I am just reading your account of novasure. I’m scheduled for this procedure tomorrow morning and am freaking out by all the bad accounts online. I’ve had my tubes removed bc we were done having kids after the 3rd, I’m 37 and since my periods started up again, I have no cramping but it’s super heavy a few days, then Ruins my underwear for another 12-15 days after that.
I have no fibroids/cysts/etc. but feel like maybe I should just keep dealing with this out of fear of what might happen after surgery. I can’t wear tamping to control the bleeding bc my vbac birth messed up my vagina to the point that I have an extra spot in there to fit a tampin. So the blood flows right past it and out it comes. I feel like I’m being a baby and should just deal with it.
So how are you now in 2017??? Still good?
Hello, I am 48yrsvold and having the NovaSure procedure done in a couple days. Very nervous about it but ready at the same time to move on and get back a little normalcy. Your story and also the video was very help.
Thank you
Colleen