My husband (fiancé at the time) and I had been using a copper IUD as birth control for about 2 years when I started having trouble with it – I started a cycle of one week of a very heavy flow, then one week of nothing, on and off for several weeks (literally a gush of fluid that I could feel, ruining my pants, once when I was actually standing in front of someone in a conversation). My doctor took it out and did a hysteroscopy – all was fine, so the IUD was apparently the trouble maker. We switched to the pill – and 4 months later I found out I was pregnant, at 40! During my pregnancy, I told my doctor I didn’t want to have any more children, unless, my life situation changed and I didn’t have to work anymore, so I wanted to have my tubes tied – at my age that probably wasn’t going to happen until retirement J. Anyone I knew that had ‘their tubes tied’ had their cut the tubes and then stitched closed– I was unaware of any other procedure. After my daughter was born, they told me they couldn’t have a tubal ligation in the hospital because I didn’t have a c-section. *A quick note – I gained 27 pounds during my pregnancy, and stepped on the scale exactly one week after I gave birth, and had lost every pound. After I started getting a regular monthly flow again, I started asking my doctor to schedule my tubes being tied. I didn’t trust the pill, nor didn’t want the weight gain that comes with it or the implants – and I definitely wasn’t doing an IUD again. They set up the procedure in their office – all I was told is there was a new procedure that allowed them to perform the tubal ligation in their office. I was not given any pamphlet or information on any ‘devices’ that would be put inside me. I had no idea until the procedure was over and the doctor showed me one implanted on the screen – it looked like the spiral on a notebook.
The problems started within a few weeks:
Odd rash only on my lower back and under my ears (really weird) – hard purple bumps, they freak my husband out more than the weight gain!
Pain in lower abdomen
Anxiety/frustration
Confusion/heavy, foggy head, swollen neck
Fingernails growing funny
Numbness in right hip and leg; pain in knees and hips, mostly on the right side
Sometimes have the strangest sensation of pain in my skin, mostly on my legs, when this happens anything touching my skin is unbearable, and sometimes I have to just l need to lie still until it passes.
Extreme weight gain, especially in the stomach
Have had only 2 periods in the last 18 months – they were extremely heavy, and came on unannounced – just full gush.
When I get a cold or flu, it seems to last forever, and in the last two years I have gotten a double ear infections (haven’t had that since I was a child) and a throat infection so bad that I lost my voice for over two weeks (this never happened at all before) and one of these occurrences even came with bronchitis, also never had before. Up until 2 years ago, I rarely got a flu, and a cold came and went in a couple days.
Many of my symptoms seem menopausal. My doctor has run the hormone tests, and according to the results, I am not in the early stages of menopause. In addition, the Doctor also did a hysteroscopy & ultrasound to look for any problems, she said the uterus looked healthy – and with the hysteroscopy, she said that even though I had not had a period in approximately five months at that point, the uterine walls were clear, as if I had just had a cycle. After that long of a time without a cycle, the lining should have been thick.
My doctor, although trying to see what could be wrong, only seems half-hearted about it. I have to give her some credit, she is not the doctor who did the procedure, she actually took over his practice approximately 2 years ago. When I first complained of my symptoms, and asked her if anyone else had problems with Essure, she told me that she hasn’t heard of any complaints at all. As time went on she did say she was hearing about complaints, but didn’t seem to put much stock into it. Only of late has she talked about removing them, but cautioned me that I would have to have a hysterectomy, and wanted me to weigh the symptoms of the removal of a uterus to the symptoms I have now… HUH?!?!!?! She said that they can only be removed successfully within the first year, and now that I’ve had them for two years, a hysterectomy was my only option… again HUH!?!?!? There are many places that remove the coils. Now that I’m better educated on these coils and what I can do about them, thanks to this site, I am setting up an appointment with an allergist next week, to check for both a titanium and nickel allergy – and whether or not I have one, I will be getting these coils removed, I cannot bear to have my daughter see me anymore as an obese cranky confused woman, and I don’t want to lose my husband to a thinner happier woman! I can’t believe I have lived like this for 2 ½ years, and trusting my doctor, tried to convince myself they were normal getting older pains. My career has suffered because I cannot focus. My wonderful son, is leaving for college in the fall, and I feel terrible about the quality of a mother he has had!