I had discussed having my tubes tied prior to having my second child with my doctor. I was scheduled to have another c-section so having my tubes tied immediately following the birth would have been no problem. However, I went into labor early and had my c-section at a different hospital that my doctor was on call at which ended up being a Catholic hospital. Because of this, they notified me that I was unable to have my tubes tied as planned.
While I was upset, my doctor assured me there were easy alternatives to a tubal ligation that we could discuss after the baby was born. That alternative was Essure and I had the procedure 4 months after my son was born.
During the procedure, the doctor came out to inform my husband that the coil had punctured my uterus during the procedure but not to worry, it should heal fine. In the following weeks I bled excessively even though an ultra sound showed the wound had healed. They proceeded to put me on hormones and even offered me birth control to stop the excessive bleeding. They continually told me it had nothing to do with the Essure and that it was coincidental.
I told my doctor that the bleeding was so excessive and bright red in color and accompanied with sharp pain that it had to be injured in some way but they assured me that wasn’t the case. I bled for months on end with horrible stabbing pain and became anemic to the point I was passing out. I would get a day or two relief and then it would start again. There would be so much blood that if I turned a certain way immediately after putting in a tampon, the blood would gush out enough to soak through to my pants. Tampons did nothing in these circumstances to prevent the blood flow.
I found myself passing out alone with two young children at home! I finally went to a new doctor after moving from CA to TX 8 months post procedure. The doctor had no clue what to do but exploratory surgery. I knew going into it that a hysterectomy was possible but it was supposed to be laparoscopic.
I woke up from the surgery to find a total abdominal hysterectomy was what they had to do. Doing the procedure laprascopically was not an option because once inside, the surgeon said there was so much scar tissue it was impossible to do what had to be done without injuring other organs including my bladder which was fused to my uterus.
The recovery was painful but after dealing with the pain and bleeding associated with my Essure procedure for 10 months, I would have the hysterectomy again and again. It was so discouraging not to mention extremely expensive financially and taxing on my health, family, and marriage. I hate to see that I am not the only other one that has had to deal with these horrible side effects. My prayer is that if this product is to stay on the market, the full list of complications is given to women. Looking back I should have known better that it sounded too good to be true but I trusted my doctor and the FDA.
At least you’ve learned your lesson NOT to ever trust what your doctor always tell you to have in your body. I do hope more women get to know the complications they may have from the Essure. This product should be banned from the market.