Is Endometrial Ablation Right For You?

On a business flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, I got up to visit the lavatory and I left behind a red stain on the seat. Pure horror is an understatement. This was suppose to be just a day trip and I didn’t have a change of clothes.

During my peri-menopause years, I had this happen a few other times–not just on the plane but also in my office and in my car. Friends told me I probably needed a hysterectomy. My doctor told me to try an endometrial ablation. This is a procedure where they laser off the uterine lining. The heavy periods stop, but you still have your uterus so you still have your hormone cycle.

The problem was that I wasn’t fully informed and hindsight is ” 20-20.”

I was estrogen dominant (typical for my age). This means my body was pumping out lots and lots of estrogen to get my ovaries to keep them functioning. Kind of like my body was giving its best effort to keep ovulating, but the end result was heavy bleeding. It was an imbalance of too much estrogen with not enough progesterone. What I wish I had known at the time was that I could have treated it with natural progesterone supplements instead of a surgical procedure. My MD didn’t give me that option. My guess is that he didn’t know about that option. And I didn’t know enough to ask good questions.

But I was promised no more heavy periods and less PMS, which was a miracle in my book because I suffered for 20 years with personality altering PMS for one week of every month (my husband Eric can testify).  Yes, I was a raving bitch at times. Sorry honey!  But, that procedure fixed the bleeding and the PMS. It was a was a buy one, get one free in my book!  Then within a year, I was gently pushed into menopause….confirmed by hormone blood tests.

Not a bad story, right? Well, it’s not bad if you don’t mind going into menopause earlier than you want.

So, is uterine oblation right for you? Might be, but try the natural progesterone route first. For more on this topic read, “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause” by Dr. John Lee, MD and “The Hormone Cure” by Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD. You’ll be glad you did.

Heidi