Heavy Periods, Uterine Biopsy

 Heavy Periods, Uterine Biopsy

 

    By this time, June of 2024, I had been dealing with irregular periods for several months. My period was coming earlier than usual, in the form of spotting. My period was only mildly heavier and lasted an extra few days. After my period ended, a few days would go by before I would start passing clots for another few days. I suspected this was because my kidney wasn’t functioning at an optimal level. This seemed to be the same thing that happened when my kidneys were failing about 13 years prior. I called my gynecologist to talk about it and she wanted me to do a transvaginal ultrasound and trans abdominal ultrasound to make sure everything looked okay. The tests came back normal. She suspected my problem very well could’ve been due to my kidney but there is no test that could confirm as much. As I am a more complex case, she suggested I do one more test. I needed to have a biopsy of my uterine lining taken. If that came back fine, then I would start on birth control for a while to stop the bleeding. By this time, I had been bleeding for a good month.

    I was told I would have some moderate cramping and that I should take some Ibuprofen before I came in for the biopsy. I cannot take Ibuprofen due to my kidney issues and I figured Tylenol wasn’t going to do anything so I just went without it. I was not prepared for the pain that would ensue. I somehow didn’t realize this was going to hurt the way it did. I needed a total of three biopsies. After the first biopsy I said, “This really hurts!” They told me that’s normal. I’m not sure why I wasn’t warned about the severity of pain. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through two more. During each biopsy I pushed my feet into the stirrups with all my might. The pain was unbelievable. By the third biopsy I had already had too much pain and was really not sure how I’d get through it. I’m not sure why anyone thinks women should have to do such biopsies without any kind of pain medicine or sedation. It seems a bit barbaric, much like the MOHS surgery on my eyelid. I left the procedure with a bit of cramping in my stomach. I came home and rested for a while. It turned out that the biopsy came back positive for polyp fragments. The doctor said I would need to have any polyps removed and I would need a D&C. If after all this I still had bleeding, then I would require birth control pills for a little while until my hormones regulated.