Help! - Suffering with menorraghia, ovarian cysts - Norethisterone

Hello everyone.

First of all I'm going to apologize for the length of this message, but hope people can read it and offer any advice.

I am a 27 year old woman who has never had regular periods, probably around 4 to 8 per year. However I have never had any issues with them, no severe pain or heavy bleeding. Until recently..

In the beginning of September (2019), I came on my period. It was all fine for the first day, then part way through the second day, I started bleeding VERY heavily. I was in an enormous amount of pain too. I couldn't leave the house. I sat on the toilet for 3 hours at one point because a super tampon would only last for 20-30mins before I began to leak. This continued all the way through to the next day and was not stopping. To put it into perspective, I had to use a super tampon, 2 pads and a nappy usually used for leaky bladders just to feel comfortable to even sit on my couch for 45 minutes or so before I had to change them.

After over 24 hours, I knew this was not normal and something had to be wrong. We rang 111 who advised that I should either accept an ambulance or go straight to A&E. I went up to A&E. The doctor I saw gave me ibuprofen, a buscopan tablet and prescribed me with Norethisterone (5mg) and Tranexamic Acid, then sent me on my way. They did a blood test to check my hormone levels which came back fine.

I went to the pharmacy in the hospital, took the Norethisterone and Tranexamic Acid tablets straight away and went home. I was surprised to find that after 30 minutes, the bleeding slowed down and I could actually relax a little bit. I had a 10 day course which throughout that time, slowed the bleeding right down so I could go back to work etc. I went to see my GP throughout this time who referred me for an ultrasound and did another hormone blood test (again came back fine).

I took my last tablet on the 10th day and the following day, I came back on my period just as heavy and just as painful. I immediately went back to my GP, who gave me another 10 day course of Norethisterone. This time they pretty much stopped the bleeding entirely after a day or two which I was glad of. During this time I had my ultrasound and the results showed that I have "cysts on my ovaries", I spoke to my GP on the phone who gave me this information but didn't say it was polycystic ovaries. He told me I needed to come in for a blood test so they could check for ovarian cancer. I booked the blood test and on the same day had to see my GP again to get MORE tablets because once again the bleeding had come back just as severe after finishing the second 10 days. This time, they gave me 21 days worth, a week's sick note for 'Menorraghia' and referred me to Gynaecology at the hospital. I phoned a couple of days later for my blood test results and they confirmed they were clear (sigh of relief!). Again, the bleeding stopped completely.

My 21 days is up tomorrow, so in readiness for this I went back to my GP a few days ago. I wanted to speak directly to the practice owner because each time I have seen a different doctor and honestly feel as though I have gotten nowhere. He explained what is happening and said that my body isn't producing enough of the Progestogen hormone which in a normal period is used to kill the blood vessels to stop the bleeding, so without the Norethisterone, I would just bleed continuously. He said this was because of the cysts on my ovaries. He did also mention that he thinks I have Endometriosis but this would need diagnosing by specialists - There is family history of this condition (mother and auntie). He wanted to put me on the combined contraceptive pill so I could stop taking the Norethisterone because I shouldn't be taking it long term, but unfortunately I cannot take the combined pill because I suffer with Migraines. So now I have another 63 days worth of Norethisterone and I just have to wait for the Gyni appointment to come through. I'm not sure why, but after almost 3 weeks of not bleeding, it's started (not as bad) again this weekend although I am still taking my tablets.

I guess the reason I am posting here is because I am concerned, fed up and to be honest a little scared. This all came out of nowhere and I'm just wondering if anyone else has been through the same type of thing before?

If you've managed to get to the end of this message, thank you so much! If I haven't made anything clear enough, please ask. Hope to hear back from some of you.

-Jayne. x

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