Hello all
Just reaching out to see if anyone had a similar experience. Noticed a change to my periods the past 2 years. I've always been 28 day cycles but then they changed to 23-62 day cycles. I've always had heavy periods but now I'm flooding through my period pants, sanitary towel and tampon in an hour for the first few days and much bigger clots.
Kept putting off going to the doctor as I was embarrassed and had a negative smear last year.
Saw a lovely nurse who referred me for a scan and gynae and was put on a pathway. Just had a hysteroscopy where the doctor said my endometrium lining was concerning thicker than first thought so took a biopsy and have to go back to have fibroids removed as they were too big to do at that appointment.
The doctor was really trying to do the hard sell on the coil before the appointment so I agreed in the end only for him to say my lining was too irregular and lumpy to insert a coil. I found thar quite strange.
I was shocked at just how uncomfortable the procedure was as I assumed it would be like a smear but my goodness it felt like my insides were being pierced and felt like someone was stabbing my bum.
Hello Daisy888
Welcome to the Womb group.
I am sorry to hear that you have had some changes to your periods over the last 2 years and it has become heavy bleeding. You did absolutely the right thing in seeing the nurse and with those symptoms it is normal to be put on the urgent pathway and a scan is usually the first step.
A hysteroscopy and biopsy can be really uncomfortable for some ladies so you are in no way alone. It is more invasive than a smear because that is only going as far as your cervix whereas with the hysteroscopy/biopsy they need to go through the cervix into the actual womb. Some ladies go on to have it done under general anaesthetic. We are all individuals inside and sometimes our anatomy as we get older can make the procedure difficult. I definitely felt a lot of prodding and poking, so I know what you mean about the stabbing sensation.
I would not worry too much about them not inserting the coil and it is likely that it is the fibroids that are making the insertion difficult.
What I would imagine will happen now is that there will be around a couple of weeks wait to get the results back from the biopsy and depending on what it shows, they would likely call you back in to discuss what happens next.
You are not alone in thinking that having a negative smear means that there is nothing to worry about, the thing is that only checks the cervix so does not check for things within the womb, such a thickened lining, fibroids or cancer. My last smear test was negative.
You have done the right thing in being checked and I know that the testing can be unpleasant but it is the only way to find out what is causing your heavy bleeding. Once they know for sure the cause, then they can talk about the treatment. It must be really draining to have such heavy bleeding.
I hope you do not have to wait too long to get your results. In the meantime if there is anything that you need, then please do ask.
Jane
