I am 33 years old and after having our 2 beautiful daughters, my husband and I began the talk about permanent birth control. We explored all the options (tubal, vasectomy, etc.) and because of money issues and the wonderful sound the doctor made the Essure sound we decided to go that route. Non-surgical, in office, no down time and insurance covered it, why not right?
The day came and I took the prescribed medication before the procedure (valium) and at arrival of the office they gave me an injection of a pain medication. They walked me to the procedure room and I changed and got up on the table. The doctor and an Essure rep came in the room and began the procedure. It was a little uncomfortable at first, just moderate cramping, but I tried to relax and watch the procedure on the TV screen. Located my fallopian tubes, she said they were beautiful, and started with left side. When the coil entered my tube, I felt the most unbearable pain shoot from my tube all the way down my thigh to my foot. I stiffened up, lost my breath and just watched hoping it was over quickly. When it was in place the pain slowly eased off and I took a deep breath.
Now to the right side. As I am saying hurry hurry hurry in my head she places the coil in the right tube. The pain shoots again, even worse than the left. Worse than child birth. (Note I do have a high pain tolerance normally). She all the sudden stops and looks up at the rep. I am at this point expressing my pain vocally. She said my tube is having a spasm to relax and it will go in. I ask if I’m supposed to feel paralyzed in my leg and she said it will go away quickly. I was terrified. She slowly got the coil in place and the pain somewhat went away. She quickly looked at both tubes to show me they were both in correct placement and looked great.
After removing all the equipment they had me just sit and relax before I tried to get up. I then got dressed and went into a room with my husband to wait 30 minutes before they let me go. At this point I can’t sit because of the extreme cramping nor can I lie down. I just looked at my husband and started crying because of the pain. They came in (I hid my pain because I thought I was being a baby), checked my blood pressure, gave me a few instructions, and was sent home. I cried the entire way home and just wiggled back and forth, sitting up, leaning back, could not find a comfortable position.
When I got home, I called my mom to bring me pain medication she had, and tried a hot bath (which helped a bit). When I got out I tried to lie down to sleep it off. Tossed and turned, still in pain. Finally after about 10 minutes, I guess the pain pill kicked in and my body gave up fighting, I fell asleep. The next week was in and out of sharp stabbing pains, heavy heavy bleeding, and nausea. I called the doctor and was prescribed medication for pain and told to rest.
One week later the doctor had me come in the office for an ultrasound. She couldn’t get a good visual of the coils so sent me over to the hospital for x-rays. She called back the next day and said the coils were in place and everything looked normal and to let her know if the pain continues. She said I was probably just having a reaction to the material of the coils and that it should ease off soon. Yea right!
Now here I am, a few weeks away from having the 3 month confirmation test done, and still experiencing off and on pain, nausea, tiredness, and other complications I’d rather not get into. I can feel the pain begin in what I strongly believe to be my fallopian tubes, and it, at times, still travels down my thighs. I also have back pain and cramping, some mild, some not so mild at all. I am extremely scared and anxious about the confirmation test. Just ready to see if they are blocked and in place and start considering my options for pain relief. I will update as I find out!