Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

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Progesterone for bleeding after supracervical hysterectomy

20 March, 2005

Question:

Hello,

I first want to say how glad I am to have this resource for information and support.

I’ll give a little background before my actual question in case it is pertinent.

I am almost 43 years old. I have had several miscarriages and BH one child (10 1/2). For the past 9 years I have been struggling with Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. These two things have made it a hardship to go to mikveh at night and I have needed to make special arrangements to go during the daytime.

I had a supracervical hysterectomy 4 1/2 years ago after about 4 years of heavy and very long and frequent menstrual periods. The periods were so long and so close together that I often would go 4 or 5 months without being able to go to mikveh.

I could write volumes about how the miscarriages and near constant state of niddah affected me psychologically and my relationship with my husband, but I imagine you can guess.

Because it was a supracervical hysterectomy, some uterine tissue was left and I still had light but long and frequent periods. The surgeon said he removed everything. He actually said “you have no endometrial tissue left”. It took two years, three doctors, and some very painful procedures before I was told that it is not uncommon for some uterine tissue to be left after a supracervical hysterectomy. Those two years were emotionally devastating to me.

For the past 2 years I have been taking low dose hormones (Micronor) every day and after the first month or so I have been able to avoid being niddah. My doctor is considering taking me off medication to avoid increasing my cancer risk, etc.

I do not want to stop the medication because I don’t think I could deal with the bleeding, unpredictability, and dread of toilet paper and my underwear. On the other hand, I think I should make informed and good choices about taking care of my body.

Do you have any information or recommendations for me??

Thank you so much.


Answer:

We are sorry to hear how much you have suffered over the last years.

Your request to remain on the hormones is a reasonable one. The positive effect on your quality of life needs to be balanced against the increased risks, which are rather small for non smokers. You should discuss this further with your physician, who knows the details of your personal and family health history. You may wish to refer him to the section of our website designed for medical professionals, Jewish Women’s Health, for a better understanding of the impact of frequent bleeding on your quality of life.

You should also discuss the possibility of doing periodic blood tests to determine if you are entering menopause as this will happen at some time and then you will no longer need the hormones.

Please get back to us if you have additional questions.


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