Let’s Chat with Jessica
By Jessica Stevens
I was first diagnosed with Endometriosis and Adenomyosis last year (2022), at 32 years of age after trying to conceive.
My first period occurred when I was 14 years old and it was a traumatic experience, as it was full of heavy clotting. This was something that my mother had never experienced. After the next year or so of putting up with heavy/clotting periods and in one instance embarrassingly leaking at school, my Mum took me to the Doctor. It was here at 15 years old that I was put on the birth control pill and this was the beginning of ‘masking’ Endometriosis/Adenomyosis symptoms.
From that point on, many different birth control pills were trialled in a bid to try and control my periods. I always seemed to still have my period for up to ten days, even whilst taking these various pills. So, I was then prescribed the Implanon birth control implant, at 22 years old. The Implanon only lasted 3 months, as I bled on it the entire time. After a long break from hormones and many troublesome periods later, I was eventually prescribed the Depo Provera contraception injection at around 26 years old. I stayed on this injection for two years and loved my life, because I did not menstruate at all whilst taking it.
When I was 21 years old and in the middle of the night, I experienced excruciating pain in my lower abdomen that was extremely painful in nature, as though someone was stabbing me with a knife. I crawled myself to my parents' bedroom and my Dad had to help me get into the car to head to the emergency department at the hospital. This was where I had my first of many internal ultrasounds, to which they concluded that I had experienced an ovarian cyst rupture and that there was nothing that could be done about it. I was discharged without a Gynaecologist referral or GP follow up. Just simply told that ‘it happens to women sometimes.'
At 26 and 30 years old, I had the same painful experiences of an ovarian cyst rupturing and required hospitalisation on these further two occasions.
I was grateful that when I was 30, the hospital discharged me with a referral for an internal ultrasound and it was here that the Sonographer detected an endometrial polyp. The Sonographer explained that the endometrial polyp would require surgical removal and that I should get a referral from my GP to a Gynaecologist. I headed to my GP, obtained the referral and then attended my Gynaecologist appointment. I asked the Gynaecologist if I had Endometriosis, given a polyp was found in my endometrium. The Gynaecologist stated “no, not necessarily and that to diagnose Endometriosis it would require a laparoscopy surgery.” I was then booked in for a hysteroscopy surgery to remove the endometrial polyp and not an investigative laparoscopy.
In terms of Endometriosis symptoms, I had heavy menstruation, but I did not have any pain. Perhaps if I was in pain, the Gynaecologist would have performed a laparoscopy also. 6 months after surgery, my Husband and I began trying for a baby with the impression that everything was ‘good down there’. The polyp had been successfully removed and we were good to go!
After 6 months of trying unsuccessfully for a baby, I asked my GP for an ultrasound referral. I burst into tears when I found out the endometrial polyp had returned in the same location and that it would yet again require surgery to be removed. This I knew meant that there would be more disrupted cycles/months that we would not be able to try for a baby, as I again waited and recovered from a second hysteroscopy surgery. Upon returning to the Gynaecologist to book in for this surgery again, I was seen by a different practitioner. This time after taking a full history, this new Gynaecologist suspected that I had Endometriosis.
The Gynaecologist explained that highly trained practitioners such as herself, could now detect suspected Endometriosis via ultrasound with advancement in the technology and training. The Gynaecologist performed the ultrasound and did detect suspected Endometriosis. I cried because by this stage I’d been a menstruating woman for 18 years and was fearful for my fertility. I’d always been told that my heavy periods were “just something that women experienced sometimes.” That ovarian cysts rupturing, “were just something that women experienced sometimes” and that endometrial polyps were just “something that women experienced sometimes.” I was then booked in for a laparoscopy surgery to remove any suspected Endometriosis and a hysteroscopy surgery to remove the endometrial polyp (yet again).
Upon waking from surgery, I was told that I had Stage 2 Endometriosis and that they had also found Adenomyosis. I could not believe that these diseases could almost take two decades to diagnose. I am grateful that by having a diagnosis of these two diseases, that I now know how to manage them. I am grateful that as soon as the Endometriosis tissue was removed, I was able to conceive a baby and feel extremely fortunate for our miracle. I am grateful that I am no longer told that my heavy, leaking flow is normal. It is not normal to have a heavy period.
Most importantly, I have learnt that you can have Endometriosis and Adenomyosis and not experience pain!
So, be sure to advocate for yourselves if you suspect something is not quite right or if your periods seem different to your family or friends.
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