Menstrual Cycle and Awaiting Surgery

Daily Weight: 163.1lb

As you can see, weight is increased this morning from yesterday and from my weigh ins of last week. It's not a surprise to me, as my period started on Sunday evening and it's very common for me to gain anything up to 7lb over the course of my period.

This is one reason I like to weigh in daily. Imagine if I was weighing once a week, as most people who diet do, only to step on the scales and see an increase from last week? If I didn't understand how my body works, that could cause me to feel like I've failed and that my "diet" isn't working. This can lead some people to give up, when in actual fact, all I've done is retain a little bit of water which will most likely be gone by the time the weekend rolls around.

As you will see from the title of this blog, I'm currently on the hospital waiting list for an operation. An hysterectomy to be exact. This was a difficult decision to come to, one that I've been putting off for almost two years for many reasons, one of them being my age and worrying about premature menopause.

You see, almost three years ago, I was diagnosed with fibroids after seeing my GP with increasingly painful periods. This is something I've suffered with since 2008 after I got sterilised. I had two previous endometrial ablations which helped with my heavy periods but unfortunately for me, the pain has got increasingly worse until the end of last year, when I finally decided I couldn't cope with the pain any longer.

Further investigation and discussion with my gynaecologist revealed that the problem isn't actually fibroids at all, but a condition called adenomyosis, which is often confused with fibroids on scans, etc as they look the same. However, from listening to my symptoms, my consultant said the problems I was experiencing, mainly crippling pain, was not caused by fibroids after all.

From what I've read, there isn't any definite cause of adenomyosis but it's thought that excess levels of estrogen can be partly to blame and there is increasing evidence to show that tubal ligations (sterilisation) can also cause it to develop.

Adenomyosis (also called uterine endometriosis) is a condition where endometrial tissue migrates into the wall of the uterus, which then responds to monthly hormonal changes, so when the period starts, this tissue breaks down and bleeds. But, because this is confined in the wall of the uterus, the blood has nowhere to go so remains trapped, almost like a permanent bruise, which then causes pain when the uterus contracts with menstrual cramps. Over time the uterus becomes hard and enlarged and the only permanent cure for this is an hysterectomy.

I resisted the surgery for as long as I could cope with the pain for but every month it is getting worse to the point where I'm losing 2-3 days from work per month because I simply cannot function. This is no exaggeration either, I'm usually curled up in a ball with a hot water bottle pushed forcefully against my stomach, sobbing because I can't cope with the pain and rushing to the toilet because of horrendous nausea. The only way I can describe the pain is to imagine going through labour, every. single. month.

I'm on super strong painkillers from my GP so when I'm not curled up in agony, I'm so spaced out that I can barely speak.

It's not a very nice way to live and each month, it seems to take me longer to recover from each episode. I lose so much sleep, can't eat properly and by the time my period is over I'm utterly exhausted. I usually then have two weeks to start recovering, get back to some normality with my training and mentally prepare myself for the next one. It is definitely taking a toll on my health, both physical and mental.

I'm hoping to have the procedure done laparoscopically so that there will be a much shorter recovery time and the least disruption to my life. Usually women are feeling back to normal and able to get back to normal duties within a few weeks, which is significantly less time than having the procedure abdominally, which means complete rest for 6 weeks post op and probably 6 months from training - eek!

Has anyone else suffered with terrible periods? And has anyone else had an hysterectomy? I'd love to hear your experiences so drop a comment below :)