Essure Procedure

I was given the option of the Essure procedure in 2008, I was 29. I had my daughter in September of 2008 & my husband & I decided that we didn’t want anymore children (she was #5 in our blended family) The Essure procedure was described as being this miraculous procedure by my Gyn, an in office procedure, took like 15 min, no surgery, no recovery time so I wouldn’t have to miss any work. Sounded great! So I had the procedure done in November of 2008. I went in for the dye test a month later & was told the procedure had worked great & tubes were blocked. Shortly there after I began getting Migraines, not just occasionally, everyday. These  migraines were debilitating, so much that I was missing so much work I had to go onto FMLA in order not to lose my job as a nursing assistant for lack of attendance. My periods became very heavy, uncomfortable and increased in frequency, they were coming every 15-18days. (Talk about a real downer on a newly weds sexual activity when pregnancy risks were taken out of the equation, but only had a period free period of about 1 week) My periods before Essure were regular and very easy, not heavy at all, no cramps, lasted 6 days then done. I assumed this was just ‘normal’ after the Essure procedure because Gyno said there could be changes in period activity so I just waited it out to see if it would regulate back to a somewhat normal cycle. That never happened. I began seeing my family dr. For my migraines and was given a multitude of medications to treat them, many other medications to try to prevent them. Nothing really seemed to work, I had many emergency room visits due to the excruciating pain that I could get no relief at home. These visits normally resulted in multiple IV medications before any relief was achieved & I became excessively tired after them. I was constantly fighting migraines or headaches on the verge of becoming migraines. I was sensitive to lights and sound, nausea that caused vomiting. I was unable to be a productive mother or homemaker, I was just trying to get thru everyday.

In 2012 I went back into Gyno due to stabbing abdominal pains around were the Essure was placed. I was told everything was still in place properly, however the excessive periods were not normal and my pain was due to varicose veins in my uterus. At this time I was 33.  My Gyno offered a supra cervical hysterectomy, again this was made to sound like it would fix my problems, only removing my uterus which was the cause of abdominal pain, in turn no more terrible periods, keeping my ovaries so no early menopause & since I had the Essure previously it wasn’t like I was going to be attempting to get pregnant so I didn’t ‘need’ my uterus anyways. So in December of 2012, I had a supra cervical hysterectomy done. Requiring 6 weeks off work when I was in the process of trying to buy a house (kind of hard to get a loan when you have no income records for 6 weeks) I was in terrible pain after this, no pain meds touched it, I could barely get around for the first 3 weeks.

Since then I have continued to deal with frequent migraines, trying many different combinations of medications for treatment and as attempts to prevent them. In 2014 I began seeing a neurologist for them. I’ve had CT scans, MRI, ultrasounds, changed my diet, monitored what I eat to watch for any triggers, increased medications as preventatives, had a schedule of going to bed at the same time and waking at the same time, all with no positive results. I have abdominal pain still, which I had just put off that possibly due to scar tissue from c-section & hysterectomy, but now I wonder if the Essure isn’t to blame, I have back pain, joint pain in my knees, shoulders and elbows-which I just assumed was from my work or due to ageing. I was normally a very hyper, energetic person, always on the go.. Now I have no energy, I’m tired all the time even after getting adequate sleep throughout the night. I never would have associated any of this with the Essure procedure until I came upon this site & see so many others having similar issues. I really wasn’t given any info on the possibilities of all these long term effects of the procedure or I think I would have done more research & possibly went with another option. I’m now questioning if I have it removed would this daily problems vanish and could I get back to being the vibrant energetic woman i once was?