This had to be the coolest thing I had ever seen. What a great idea. What could possibly go wrong? I was so thankful for my new doctor for telling me about this surgery free, non-evasive new method of permanent birth control. Here I thought that I wanted a 10 year IUD, he made me realize that I really wanted Essure. So I scheduled the appointment and went a long my merry way.
At home I did some more research, just to be sure that Essure was the way to go. According to the FDA, only 1% of women with Essure suffered from side effects. That means I had a 99% chance that this would be good for me. I mean seriously, only 1%? That wouldn’t be me!
On the day of my appointment, I was excited. This was the first day of the rest of my life! I felt so grown up and responsible. The nurse fed me a mixture of pills that rivaled a Friday night for Charlie Sheen.
Once they kicked in, they started the procedure. And oh my god was it absolute torture. I remember the crowning when I birthed my two children. I’ve had 2 cervical biopsies. I’ve stepped on legos and I’ve ruptured my appendix. Nothing and I mean nothing compared to having Essure put in. I was crying like a baby and the nurse had to hold my hand. It took way longer than 15 minutes. And I was in an incredible amount of pain. It felt like he had just installed barbed wire inside of my abdomen. I was bleeding profusely.
The doctor sent me on my way with a prescription for Norco 10s and reassured me that this pain was not permanent. After 3 months of cramping, my tubes would be full of scar tissue and I could live happily ever after. 3 months went by. The pain did not go away.
From the moment I woke up in the morning to the moment I went to sleep, I could feel the Essure coils. It was a constant sharp pain accompanied by random stabbing pains. At any given time, my pain level was at a 6, and a 10 when the stabs came around. It hurt to move. Every time I stood up. Every time I sat down. When I twisted in either direction. When I drove. When I coughed or sneezed. I could not move because I had barbed wire inside of me. I had let my doctor talk me in to having a medieval torture device put inside of my abdomen.
This pain never stopped. Not even for a second. I had to deal with this for thirteen months. You would think that I could just get them taken out right? It wasn’t that simple. For the first 3 months, I tried to just wait it out. They had said that it would only take 3 months to work right? So I waited 3 months.
In hell. I would bleed for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. Stop bleeding for a week, then start bleeding again. I lost weight. A lot of weight. I was weak. I was feeble. I felt like I was dying. The 3 months went by and there was no change. Then it became 6 months. The pain was so unbearable that I decided I wanted them taken out right then and there. I was aware that in order to remove them, I would need a hysterectomy or maybe just a salpingectomy, depending on how far out in the tubes the coils were. I had my husband rush me to the hospital.
This was it. I had to get them out. I couldn’t take it anymore. This was an emergency. At the ER, I had to explain to at least 6 people what Essure was. But there was nothing they could do. I would have to follow up with a gynecologist. Didn’t they realize that this was an emergency? I wanted them out!
The next day, I called my gynecologists office, the last people on Earth that I wanted to see. While I was on hold, I had to listen to a cheerful Essure commercial, talking about how awesome it is. I could just picture a cheerful woman spinning around in a meadow as I angrily tapped my foot and waited for someone to come back on the line. The receptionist transferred me to a nurse. I recognized her voice as the women that held my hand as they put those evil torture devices inside of me. She was so sweet but I hated her. I hated her guts and hated the doctor even more. I told her that I wanted my Essure removed. She told me that was not possible. Essure is permanent. There is no such thing as Essure removal. I collapsed in hysterics. My husband demanded that we go to a different hospital. So we went to a different ER. A fresh crop of people that had never heard of Essure.
Once again, there was nothing they could do. I would have to follow up with a gynecologist. I told them I needed emergency surgery. Just give me a hysterectomy. This was an emergency. I couldn’t take the pain anymore. But once again, I was sent home in tears. I felt so helpless. So angry. At this point I was spending all of my spare time on the internet, talking to thousands of women just like me. It was the same story. Heavy bleeding, constant pain, wasted trips to the ER. A lot of women had their coils break or migrate to other parts of their bodies. Some have even had the coils come out of their vaginas.
The good news that I learned was that it was possible to get Essure removed.
The most common method is hysterectomy leaving the ovaries. It is possible to get the tubes cut out (a salpingectomy) but that is really tricky unless the coils are incorrectly placed and far out in the tubes. The problem is finding a doctor that is willing to perform the surgery. I spent months in pain, making appointments, listening to the stupid Essure advertisements, and being told over and over that Essure wasn’t the problem.
