Uterine Endometrium Ablation - tired of these nasty crohn's periods!

You might want to post this on the UC forum. One of the mods there has had this done and I'm sure she'd be happy to discuss it with you.

I had it in November. I had Fibroids and Polyps that needed to be removed. I had also had lots of period trouble going back for years, probably fibroids, but not sure. The procedure itself was easy, I was knocked out. Since I had to have things removed it had to be done at the hospital under sedation, but it can be done in the doctors office with some sort of valium type of drug. I was in quite a bit of pain for the rest of the day, nothing compared to CD pain, but more than I expected from what I had been told. Recovery was a few days, mostly I was just wiped out, could have been the anesthesia or just the fact that my body had been through surgery and I was healing, but also this was more than I was expecting, but nothing I couldn't handle. I was told I could go back to work the next day if I had a sedentary job (I don't so I didn't), but I don't think I could have functioned at any job for a few days. I needed to nap, big time and I was in some serious cramping pain and wanted my heating pad.

In the following months, I have gotten a period, but much lighter and no real cramping. Each month has been lighter and for a shorter duration. I am due now for my period and have no signs of it coming so maybe it has finally stopped them altogether?!? Who knows, but things are much better now. If you are sure that you are done having children and are having such terrible pain and trouble, then it certainly can be an option. I actually had had my tubes tied years ago, so the not having kids part was a done deal for me anyway.

If you have any specific questions just let me know. I don't always check my posted email, but I will keep checking this post so if you want to email me just post that you have sent one and I will go to my email to check.

Hi.  I had this done March 2009 for bleeding that lasted 3 weeks a month which at the time we thought was the cause of some anemia I had.  I had heavy bleeding/prolonged bleeding and debilitating cramps for over a year.  A uterine fibroid may or may not of been the cause. 

I had the type of ablation that is called Novasure.  You can google it to find out more about it.  My doc does them in the hospital under general anesthesia.  (which is the only way Id agree to do it.)  The procedure was a piece of cake...15 minutes total.  In/out of hospital in just a couple hours.  Some moderate cramping (but for me no worse than usual) for about a week afterword.  The doc rx'd some good pain killers though.  I recall being super tired for a few weeks afterword...almost like when I was in the first trimester of pregnancy kind of tired.  IF you go the general anesthesia route, be sure to be on the lookout for UTI symptoms.  about 10 days out I ended up sooo ill with a bladder infection that I didn't recognize right away because I had never had one before, and I thought my discomfort was from the surgery.  The UTI was most likely because of being cathed during surgery..I had a friend have the same procedure done, and same thing happended to her.

It was totally worth it to get this done.  I have been so blessed to have NO periods at all since.  I haven't had to buy any feminine products since recovering (i bled about 2 weeks after)  My cramping is much better, but unfortunately not totally gone.  During ovulation, I still have some mild/sometime moderate pain, and during the week I'd normally have my period I have very mild cramping.  But still much better than before the surgery.

I did some research on this and am a bit concerned about the long term consequences. It is difficult to get all the tissue at the top of the uterus so some can be left behind. This tissue bleeds every month but there may be no where for it to go, especially in women that have blocked tubes from tubal ligation or scarring. Eventually it gets painful enough that women get a hysterectomy. Most of these types of problems take a long time, five years or more, to cause a problem. Also, there is a very small risk of asymptomatic endometrial cancer in the tissue left behind. The procedure doesn't cause cancer but it may make it harder to notice if you get it.

Some methods may be less likely to cause this complication than others so you might want to do a bit of research, especially if you can have a choice of methods.

I think most women who get an ablation are quite happy with it because they are usually suffering so much already. It's certainly worth checking into.

Good luck.

My gyn offered the Gynacare, the balloon method. Is this the safest and most successful? It is hard to find which method is best.


fyi: Ultrasounds, bloodwork, hormone levels, everything looked ok they said.

This may be a little irrelevant, but I myself have very painful periods with clotting and moderate to heavy bleeding. They are very irregular but they only last about four to five days. I was just wondering if there is some connection between that and the crohns that I am not aware of yet. I also noticed that I tend to have minor flare ups (nausea and diarrhea accompanied with abdominal cramps that are relatively high for menstrual cramping) during my period. Is this just me being weird and crazy or is this common?

Hi all, what constitutes a flare? How long to they typically take to go away? Thanks!

Roni:  Thank you for responding.  So any pain or D consititutes a flare?  I have been trending what people have said about food and methods to control pain.  Last week I ate canned fruit and hard boiled eggs for 24 hours and very little the next day.  Ended up with a whoppin headache but my gut sure felt better.  Then forgot that I really had a gut ache -ate too much -the headache was better but the gut ache came back. . . . yikes. . .

How much is to much blood? Has anyone's Gyno ever said when to worry?

Julia