Kristyn Watkins got her first menstrual cycle when she was 10 years old and suffered for almost the next three decades from what she describes as debilitating, heavy periods.
“As a young child, I thought it was normal to have an extremely heavy flow, and it went on all my life,” Watkins, 37, told Good Morning America, often feeling embarrassed. has over her difficult periods. “I’ve never talked to anyone about it my whole life because it’s a private thing.”
Watkins said her mother experienced the same complications, as did Watkins’ grandmother, who she said underwent a hysterectomy at the age of 32 due to excessive bleeding.
“I remember my mom saying, ‘Oh, I know honey, Nanny and I are going through the same thing and know it’s hard,'” said Watkins, an Indiana school principal. “I don’t think they realized it was normal either.”
Watkins lived with her difficult times – which would often force her to stay at home or stay near a toilet – without knowing better or getting any relief until the age of 33 when she had her first child, a daughter named Georgia, was born. .
“I thought my cycle was heavy before I had children, and after I had her, it was even worse,” said Watkins, who eventually spoke about her menstrual bleeding with her OBGYN, Dr. Todd Rumsey, chief medical officer of the Cameron Memorial, spoke. Community Hospital in Angola, Indiana.
“I talked to him about ‘Oh, this is not normal,'” Watkins said. “I suffered when I did not have to be.”
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Menstruation that lasts longer than seven days or becomes very heavy is called menorrhagia. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it affects more than 10 million American women annually, or one in five women.
Non-surgical treatments for menorrhagia include treatments such as iron supplements, birth control pills, hormone therapy and over-the-counter painkillers such as Advil, according to the CDC.
Watkins, now a mother of three, opted for a more invasive treatment for menorrhagia and underwent endometrial ablation last year.
Watkins’ procedure was performed by Rumsey using the Cerene Cryotherapy Device, which was approved in 2019 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Rumsey is the first doctor in the U.S. to perform a commercial Cerene cryoblation, the first of which last December.
“The procedure itself is designed to reduce heavy menstrual flow and reduce the need for hysterectomy in the treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding,” Rumsey told GMA. ‘I warn my patients that there is no device [to stop periods] but what is all designed is to reduce your need for hysterectomy. ‘
While traditional endometrial ablations use heat and therefore require anesthesia, the Cerene cryoblation patients can undergo the procedure in a doctor’s office because, according to Rumsey, it does not require general anesthesia.
The procedure takes less than seven minutes and works by freezing the endometrial lining of the uterus, Rumsey said.
“This is a non-hormonal way to manage menstruation,” he said, adding that recovery from the procedure is only a few days compared to possible weeks for a hysterectomy, which is still an option for women. is.
“I believe that hysterectomy can be very appropriate for some women, and if that is the case, it is very important to allow the woman to continue,” he said. “If we can offer medical or surgical options that do not involve significant downtime or long-term risks, I think that is a benefit for a woman.”
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Watkins had to wait until the procedure had to be undergone until she had her last child, because while it does not cause infertility, it makes future pregnancies dangerous. According to the FDA, it is strongly recommended that patients use contraceptives after the procedure.
Women should also do tests before the procedure to make sure their heavy bleeding is not due to underlying causes such as cancer or fibroids, according to Rumsey.
He said that when women think about whether they are having a difficult period or not, they should think about whether their menstruation is an interruption in their daily life.
“When the menstrual flow is disruptive for a woman’s day, her ability to communicate with others when it’s an employee or boss, the woman, the best friend, the mother, the sister, when it touches in the “way to do those things, we need to have a discussion about how we can make them less disruptive,” Rumsey said. “It’s not OK to deprive them of your ability to do those things.”
Watkins said she has noticed a clear difference in her periods since undergoing the procedure, saying she feels like a ‘new woman’.
“This is something that has been in my family for a long time and I feel sad to think of my mother and my grandmother and my great-grandmother and great-grandmother,” she said. “Think about how many people go through the same thing and have never said it to anyone, or they just thought it was normal.”
While Watkins was once very private on the subject, she now speaks in hopes of helping other women.
“I want people reading this to know that it’s not normal to have to stay near a toilet for almost one week out of the month, for fear of what might happen,” she said. “We know our body better than anyone. If you feel something is wrong, say something.”
A new tool helps women suffering from heavy menstrual cycles, originally published on goodmorningamerica.com