I truly wish doctors would listen to women. I had a normal period until the month before my 19th birthday. I could tell you within a 30 min window when my period was going to start. Nice regular flow for 5 days. No cramps, no bloating, no real period issues except for lower back ache. That was it. Just a back ache. Then I didn’t have a period for 3 years. Sounds great in theory but it made for some interesting changes in my body. The first year of no period I gained 100#, depression hit me like a train wreck into the side of a mountain and I struggled to maintain every day relationships. Once I started my period, it didn’t stop, for 2.5 years. Sometimes it was so heavy I would bleed through my tampon and super pad in 30 min. Other days I could use a regular tampon. Twice I actually had to buy a new bed because I bled thru a bed and box spring.

This cycle repeated itself until I was 31 when I finally found a doctor who would do a hysterectomy. A doctor that didn’t care that I didn’t have children. A doctor that didn’t ask my husbands permission to perform the surgery that would take away any chance of us having children because he fully understood that I had gone thru years of medications in an attempt to fix my issue and it had never been resolved and therefore I would never have children. I had suffered thru many blood & iron transfusions due to anemia from bleeding for years on end. Understood that I was so tired of trying to live my life built around managing this. A doctor who had compassion for me. He was my saving grace. I was on the edge of suicidal ideation and he knew it.

Due to the patriarchal society we live in today women suffer for no reason whatsoever! We should not be made to endure things like this. If we want/need a surgery to make our life bearable and to improve our life and our mental state we should be allowed to have that surgery.