Normal 0
false false false
EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:’Table Normal’; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:”; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:’Calibri’,’sans-serif’; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:’Times New Roman’; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
Let me preface my experience by stating that I am, hands down, THE healthiest person I know…ask anyone at my gym, my job, or ask my friends and family. I eat clean, exercise, intensely, daily, sleep 8 hours a night and don’t take any medication. I’m now 42. I had Essure implanted in September 2013. Never wanted kids, didn’t want hormones running rampant in my body, so this seemed, after much research, the least invasive, safest, easiest alternative to hormones or tubal ligation.
Year 1: felt like I had been hit by a bus, DAILY. Joint pain, flu-like symptoms. I kept saying ‘my bones hurt’ because that was literally the only way I could describe the pain. I felt like I’d been poisoned…like there was a heavy metal coursing through my veins. Fatigue, lethargy, I could hardly drag myself out of bed. I woke up repeatedly over the first year with severe night sweats and cramping. I spent countless days and nights sobbing and wondering what was wrong with me. I finally decided I had either fibromyalgia or possibly leukemia. I know now that my body was reacting to the implants, most likely the nickel and that I was in fact fighting my body being poisoned from the inside. Additionally, someone as healthy as me experiencing inflammation (as that is what enables the Essure to work as a barrier…scar tissue developing and inflammation), I feel, led to this adverse response. As you know, inflammation is the source of pain, debilitation and disease.
Year 2 (current): Well, that eventually ended. Then, for the last year, I’ve had excruciating pain in my sides/abdomen. Thought it was kidney stones, possibly. Now, I don’t have insurance, so everything is out of pocket for me. I’ve had labor-pain type menstrual cramps. I don’t EVER stop bleeding. All month, blood. I guess Essure does the trick because sex has become so painful over the last year that I just can’t handle it anymore. My partner of 3 years and I are now abstinent as a result of Essure. Not to mention, each time I have sex or exercise at the gym, or run sprints (anything that involves the waits/hips area), I bleed afterward. I bleed during sex, after sex, and for weeks following sex. My vaginal discharge smells different than it has my whole life, and it’s not a pleasant smell. I have persistent stabbing pains in my abdomen…both sides, all day, every day. I have intermittent severe gas and bloating of the abdomen, from my rib cage down. The constant pain in my sides and bleeding and no sex I decided I’d just have to live with. I went to the gynecologist who inserted the Essure and she said all of the above are symptoms related to my age…that it’s ‘that time.’ When I told her I thought it was the Essure she said no. She said the only way I could get rid of the Essure was to have a full hysterectomy. I went to a second gynecologist that a friend recommended and he said that the symptoms were undoubtedly a result of the Essure (he ordered an x-ray that showed the implants were exactly in the correct position, so we know it’s not from breaking/movement) and that he could remove them laproscopically, but he’d never done that before. When I couldn’t get a price quote, I denied that surgery. Very scary. So, I’ve been doing research since on doctors who perform Essure removals (all are at IVF clinics). Three days ago I finally bit the bullet and scheduled my Essure removal with Lakeshore Surgical Center in Gainesville, GA. I will be paying $4,500 out of my own pocket for removal, plus the expense of traveling there and missing 2 weeks of work (for which I do NOT get paid, since I am a contractor. That loss is another $2,200). That’s how desperate I am to get these evil things out of me and feel back to normal.
Over the past two years, I’ve spent over $8,000 out of my pocket (I have no insurance) trying to figure out what’s wrong with me and getting the Essure implants removed. Although nobody can ‘prove’ that the Essure resulted in my slew of symptoms, I knew intuitively that there was no other explanation. After research, speaking with my PCP and finding that other women had the same horrible symptoms, I can confirm that I’m not crazy after all. It’s not all in my head…it’s all in my fallopian tubes. I am counting the days until the surgery, although I’m terrified of the general anesthesia and recovery time because I take excellent care of myself and never thought I’d be enduring this.
Summary of side effects I experienced since Essure implants in 2012:
· Bone aches
· Tooth grinding (I now have to wear a night guard)
· Chipped teeth from grinding
· Joint aches
· Lethargy
· Chronic fatigue
· Night sweats
· Chronic stabbing pains in sides (have never gone away for the last year)
· Chronic pelvic pain
· Painful intercourse
· Flu-like symptoms
· Stabbing pain in lower abdomen (ovary/fallopian tube area); intermittent
· Severe menstrual cramping (never had this before)
· Bleeding during sex
· Bleeding for weeks after sex
· Bleeding after exercise
· Bleeding all the time, even just sitting
· Severe gas
· Severe bloating and distended abdomen almost all the time
· Foul-smelling vaginal discharge