[ad_1]
Kristyn Watkins had her first menstrual cycle at the age of 10, then suffered from what she describes as debilitating and heavy periods for almost three decades.
“As a young child, I thought it was normal to have an extremely heavy flow and it continued all my life,” Watkins, 37, told “Good Morning America,” adding that she felt often embarrassed by her heavy periods. “I’ve never told anyone about it in my life because it’s a private matter.”
Watkins said her mother experienced the same complications as Watkins’ grandmother, who she said had a hysterectomy at age 32 due to her excessive bleeding.
“I remember my mom being like, ‘Oh, I know honey, Nanny and I are going through the same thing and know it’s tough,” said Watkins, a school principal in Indiana. “I don’t think they realized it wasn’t normal either.”
Watkins lived with her heavy period – which often required her to stay home or stay near the toilet – without knowing more or having any relief until she was 33, when she gave birth. to her first child, a daughter named Georgia. .
“I thought my cycle was heavy before I had kids, and after I had it it was even worse,” said Watkins, who finally spoke about her period bleeding with her OBGYN, Dr. Todd Rumsey, Chief Physician of the Cameron Memorial Community Hospital in Angola, Indiana.
“I realized as I spoke to him that, ‘Oh my God, that’s not normal,'” Watkins said. “I was in pain when I didn’t need to be.”
MORE: How Following Their Rules Helped America’s Women’s Soccer Team Win The World Cup
Menstrual bleeding that lasts more than seven days or is very heavy is called menorrhagia. It affects more than 10 million American women each year, or one in five women, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Non-surgical treatments for menorrhagia include treatments like iron supplements, birth control pills, hormone therapy, and over-the-counter pain relievers like Advil, according to the CDC.
Watkins, now a mother of three, chose a more invasive treatment for menorrhagia, undergoing endometrial ablation last December.
The Watkins procedure was performed by Rumsey using the Cerene cryotherapy device, which was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019. Rumsey is the first physician in the United States to perform a commercial Cerene cryoablation, the first of which he performed last December.
“The procedure itself is designed to decrease heavy menstrual flow and reduce the need for hysterectomy in the treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding,” Rumsey told “GMA.” “I warn my patients that there is no device [to stop periods] but what they are all designed to do is reduce your need for hysterectomy. “
While traditional endometrial ablations use heat and therefore require anesthesia, Cerene cryoablation allows patients to undergo the procedure in a doctor’s office because it does not require general anesthesia, according to Rumsey.
The procedure takes less than seven minutes and works by freezing the endometrial lining of the uterus, Rumsey said.
“This is a non-hormonal way of managing periods,” he said, adding that recovery from the procedure is only a few days compared to maybe weeks for a hysterectomy, which remains an option for women.
“I think hysterectomy can be very appropriate for some women, and when it is, it’s very important to allow that woman to proceed,” he said. “If we can offer medical or surgical options that don’t pose significant downtime or significant long-term risk, I think it’s beneficial for a woman.”
MORE: Scotland Becomes First Nation To Provide Free Vintage Goods For All
Watkins had to wait for her last child to undergo the procedure, because while it doesn’t cause infertility, it does make a future pregnancy risky. It is strongly recommended that patients use contraceptives after the procedure, according to the FDA.
Women should also undergo screenings before the procedure to make sure their heavy bleeding is not due to underlying causes like cancer or fibroids, according to Rumsey.
He said that when women wonder if they are having a heavy period or not, they should ask themselves if their period is interfering with their daily lives.
“When the menstrual flow disrupts a woman’s day, her ability to interact with others, when it prevents her from being the employee or the boss, the wife, the best friend, the mom, the sister, when it happens in the way of doing these things, so we have to have a discussion of how to make it less disruptive, “said Rumsey.” It is not acceptable that it robs you of your ability to do these things. “
Watkins said she noticed a marked difference in her period since having had the procedure, saying she felt like a “new woman”.
“It’s something that has been in my family for a long time and I feel sad thinking of my mother and my grandmother and my great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother,” she said. declared. “Think about how many people go through the same thing and never told anyone about it or they just thought it was normal.”
While Watkins was once extremely private on the subject, she is now speaking out in hopes of helping other women.
“I want people reading this to know that it’s not normal to have to stay by the toilet for almost a week a month for fear of what might happen,” she said. “We know our bodies better than anyone. If you feel that something is wrong, say something.”
New tool helps women who suffer from heavy menstrual cycles, originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
[ad_2]
Source link