I hated my body because of the constant pain and bleeding.

After my 6th child Poppy was born in April 2013, I decided to be sterilised, so I went to see Mr Clarke my gynaecologist and told him what I wanted.

He told me of this new way to be sterilised, “Essure” it was called. He said it’s a really great way, I would be awake so no risks, recovery is quick. Two months later I was in hospital having it done.

I didn’t have much pain at all so thought “yep went really well”. Anyway a few weeks passed, and I would bleed for days and days on end. Then days turned to weeks.

I never went for the dye test because they said my tubes needed to be clear for so long.

After 6 months I went back to Mr Clarke and told him I was bleeding so much. He just said it’s your body getting used to the springs, so I went with pills to help slow my bleeds down.

Over the year I started getting symptoms, I started going off foods; tuna being the biggest! It was my favourite sandwich but all of a sudden I would heave when I smelt it. I went very squeamish at things like childbirth programs like Call the Midwife, which shocked me as I’ve been at 5 births in the past.  My bones started to ache too.

I ignored the symptoms and carried on with life. Anyway over the years, symptoms got much worse: headaches everyday for 3 weeks of my cycle, it was awful. Every day I’d wake with a bad head sometimes even a migraine. Then my hair would fall out, and sometimes I used to get pain in my left side just after my period.

The more the years went on, the more I got this pain, until the point it was constant for 2 weeks of my cycle and then it would move to my right side. It stopped me doing so much; I was constantly tired and irritable, I started suffering palpitations, I suffered thrush a lot, and also after my period I would get a horrible smelling discharge which I could smell all the time. It made me very conscious around my partner. On the first day of my period I would also have a bad stomach and suffer diarrhoea for two days.

Life became very stressful and tiring. I hated my body because of the constant pain and bleeding. When I was on holiday in 2017 I came accross this group on Facebook, “life after essure uk and Ireland” and that’s when I realised that a lot of other women were also suffering. I felt so relieved that it wasn’t just me.

That’s when I decided to go back to my doctor and tell him what I’d been suffering. This was in October. He made an immediate emergency referral to Mr Clarke and I had a appointment within 2 weeks.

I went thinking I would have to beg and plead for a hysterectomy, but no – as soon as I mentioned my symptoms he offered me a full abdominal hysterectomy which I was so happy about!

So here I am 5 weeks post op, and feeling great. I have no metallic taste in my mouth every day, and I am only getting slight headaches every now and again. My hair isn’t falling out, it’s going nice and thick again, and I am actually loving tuna butties again!

Obviously I am still in pain but it’s a different pain; it’s a healing pain. I’ve not yet had a follow-up appointment with Mr Clarke but he is eager to know my symptoms since my operation – and Essure is long gone thank goodness!