A worst case scenario, and how I survived it

[brokenpencil]

So, I made this account to pass along my experience in the hopes that it will help someone else. I'm not (too) upset about my lot in life, but I know a similar experience could be potentially devastating to others. Maybe this will do some good. Maybe it'll save a life. I can only hope. Here goes.

I will start it all by saying that birth control is awesome. I have absolutely NO qualms with it! It does a lot of wonderful things aside from the obvious. It was for the purpose of stabilizing my hormones that I asked my doctor to put me on it.

I was born cis female, though I never fully identified with it. It was to the point that when my father asked me when I was very young "Are you a little boy or a little girl?" I answered him straight faced "I'm me." (He thought it was cute, not realising the truth staring at him.)

Puberty hit me early and strong. I started my first period before I was 11, and from the very start, they were heavy and long. I just thought that was normal until I learned in high school just what "normal" periods were supposed to be. Oh, so I'm not supposed to bleed for a month. Well, that would have been nice to have known.

So, when I turned 18, I asked my doctor about birth control. I'd documented my periods for two years, showing the doctor everything. The doctor was completely on board! Finally! Things were going to get better! I would stop flooding every night, my moods would even out, everything would be fine!

Wrong.

Five years later, I'm married to my high school sweet heart (we are happily married to this day, though this next part did put a strain on it for a bit), just finishing college, and still on the pill. Up to then, the only thing birth control had done was moderately lessen my helascious menstrual cycles, not stabilize them at all. The doctor just shrugged it off, saying that there was nothing else to be done. (Lies, I found out later.) Meanwhile, I can't have sex with my husband without bleeding like I'd been stabbed. That put a bit of a damper on things.

Then, one morning I woke up and I couldn't walk. I couldn't walk! I was in so much pain I could hardly process anything besides that. I thought, maybe I just screwed up my back, pinched a nerve leading to my legs, something like that. I went to a chiropractor three times in a single week. On the third visit, he told me to get an MRI. So I did.

I had blood clots. A lot of them. They went from my belly button down to my toes in both legs, almost stopping all blood flow.

My husband rushed me to the hospital. We both thought I was going to die. The hospital doctors did some more tests, and they put me on so many pain meds that I can only vaguely remember the next month that I spent in the hospital. They cleared out my veins, put me on blood thinners, and told me that all natural circulation in my legs was gone. And it was all thanks to two things: I had a blood mutation called Factor V, and that, in conjunction with my mutation, I was put on contraceptives.

Factor V Leiden is a mutation of the blood that causes the blood to clot very easily. When combined with my birth control, it exacerbated the problem. There are a plethora of other things this mutation does in women, like making it difficult to get pregnant and causing heavy periods. It's a simple thing to test for, and up to 8% of Caucasians have it.

Once the doctors got me literally back on my feet again, I went home thinking that I was fixed. Everything would be okay.

Wrong again.

Now that I was off the birth control, my periods were back to their former rampages. Only now they were worse because of the blood thinners. So, anemia and I become good friends.... Ugh.

So, I just dealt with the horrible periods, thinking that there was absolutely nothing to be done. I couldn't have kids, which crushed me, because I wanted to give my husband a son and a daughter. He told me that he'd rather have me, so we grieved together over never having children of our own and moved on with life.

Three years after all that was when I considered for the first time getting a hysterectomy. I had been told up to then that it was a removal of EVERYTHING but the vaginal canal. I went to a specialist this time. Several, in fact. I wasn't going to put my life in the hands of a doctor who wouldn't even do a simple blood test before putting me on a life changing drug. The obgyns that I consulted all told me that I could keep my ovaries but still get my uterus removed. No hormone therapy, no risk of an early menopause.

The only problem was finding a doctor who would do a hysterectomy on a 27 year old woman.... Who didn't have kids....

Well, after a bit of a struggle, I found one! And I've been very happily without a uterus for over a year!

The point of my telling all of this is that there is a risk with any kind of pill the doctors prescribe. I remember going through the list of side effects on my birth control and scoffing at the thought of ever developing blood clots! I want so badly to go back in time and smack myself, but, moreover, my initial doctor who just couldn't be bothered to help me.

Also, Factor V is not uncommon. It's present in so many people, many of whom don't even know they've got it! If you or someone you know is planning on going on any kind of hormone, please tell them to get tested for these things! I don't want to see anyone else have to suffer like I have.