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The original was posted on /r/twoxchromosomes by /u/PurplePenguinPants42 on 2023-08-29 12:42:51.
When I was 15 I started having these horrible episodes of severe abdominal pain, vomiting and fainting. After a particularly bad episode I had at a sleepover (in February)I asked my mom to come take me to the ER. I had previous abdominal surgery and trauma that left me with pretty severe scarring. So the ER did a CT scan, saw an ovarian cyst, said it was no big deal, told my mom to book me in for an obgyn and sent me home.
My first pelvic exam was an absolute nightmare. Afterwards he sent me for an ultrasound to confirm what the CT showed. He diagnosed me with PCOS and said I need to suck it up and not be so dramatic about the cramping pain.
Between February and June I would just randomly collapse to the floor in school from the pain on a daily basis. But because multiple doctors had told my mother and I that all was well and that I was being a baby about the pain, no one paid any mind to me. I was invisible, as was my suffering.
July comes and I’m working at a sleep away summer camp as a cook. The worst episode yet happens. I could barely walk. I was pale, cold, sweating, vomiting and sobbing in agony. When I told the nurse that they said I just had an ovarian cyst she said no way, something serious is wrong. She called my parents to come get me to take me to the hospital right away.
They didn’t even examine me. They just went off my last images they did a few months prior and said I was being an overly dramatic, attention seeking teenager who needed to stop crying and then they sent me home.
3 days later and my dad finds me on the floor in the bathroom holding onto the toilet for dear life. It had been 24hrs since I was able to keep even water down. So he loaded me into the car and brought me back to the same ER. At first they treated me like they had all the other times. Scolding me for crying because I was in so much pain. This time they at least did a CT scan and that’s when they realized I wasn’t faking or being melodramatic about an ovarian cyst.
My small intestines had looped around an ovary and the intestines had slowly died as the blood supply was cut off. I was rushed unto emergency surgery.
You’d think after all I’d been through that doctors would listen and care. You’d be wrong. I struggled until this past June with debilitating periods. I would bleed on and off every 2 weeks. I would bleed so heavy I would resort to an ultra tampon and an adult diaper at bedtime as to not ruin the sheets. I was changing my pad and tampon every 2 hrs because I was bleeding thru. It felt like I was constantly being electrocuted in my butthole and like I had a bowling ball trying to fall out of my vagina.
So this past April I decided i would give another obgyn a try and see if maybe they could help me. I got an appt for the next week. Pap came back clear but because of the symptoms I was describing he wanted me to have an ultrasound done. That showed several polyps and fibroids. He scheduled me for surgery to remove them and if possible perform an ablation. Unfortunately due to the previous abdominal surgery scarring, after the fibroids were removed, he wasn’t comfortable performing the ablation.
1 week post op and I was still bleeding very heavy, having to change my pad every 2hrs. So I called their office for help. They called me in a prescription called tranexamic acid. It worked by the 2nd dose! Now my obgyn has me keep a script on hand for whenever my period gets to be a little out of hand. Between this medication and the d&c he performed, my periods have never been so regular and manageable!! Finally after more than 20years of seeking help I got it.