Upon asking my gyn for forms of birth control that would “last me until menopause” (I said only half-jokingly) she suggested Essure. It sounds like an awesome option, no surgery, no hormones, just a blocking of the fallopian tubes.
I’m 36 years old and I’ve known since I was 17 that I never want to have any children and have never wavered in that knowledge. If I ever do want to suddenly have children I will foster and I know I will be content with that. So I have no problems with the idea of it at all.
I just wanted to hear if other women had experiences with it and could tell me their tales. I must say, I was kind of thrilled and surprised - I hadn’t realized I had this option!
I know that this thread resembles a reanimated corpse, but I was just talking with my gynecologist today about Essure and I’m seriously considering it.
I’ve read the other threads about Essure that came up in my search results (including Drain Bead’s thread from 11/2010), but I’m wondering: Anaamika, did you wind up getting it?
I haven’t yet - I had to wait forever for my surgical consult. But we’re on now. I have to wait for the first day of my period, which should be very soon, and then they will schedule the procedure.
I asked the doctor about pain afterwards. He said in seven years he’s had ONE woman who reported recurring pain after the procedure and he’s slightly convinced it was psychosomatic.
I’m pretty pain-tolerant, so I’m not too worried. I’m going to be out (heavy sedation, not general) during the procedure, and my other half will drive me there and back.
Are you having to take all of the pre-procedure meds that Drain Bead wrote about in her thread?
I’m leaning heavily toward Essure right now, but I want to think about it a little more (and I need to get my boyfriend on board: he’s ok with the “never having kids” part, he just has a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of any kind of permanent procedure). So, it’ll be a while before I get it done…especially if my primary care physician wants to see/talk to me again before I go for a consult. And whoever does the procedure will be new to me, because the gynecologist I saw today (for the first time) doesn’t perform it.
Wait, how does “very little pain”/“no pain” equal Valium??
otternell, I think the competitor might be nickel-free. I forget the name of it, but it looks like a grain of rice.
For what it’s worth, I lerve my Essure! After having 2 surgeries in 2009, and having to have a urinary catheter for a while after each one, I was happy for something that didn’t require general anesthesia and cutting.
One of my tubes spasmed during insertion, and it was quite breathtakingly painful for a moment, and then quite sore for a few hours, but nothing I couldn’t handle. In a way, the dye test to make sure the tubes were blocked was a lot suckier. Very uncomfortable, and no good drugs. And I had to have it twice, since one tube wasn’t completely blocked the first time.
Still, totally worth it. I hope everything goes smoothly, and congratulations on your imminent sterility. Worry-free, condom-free, hormone-pill-free sex is awesome!
There are a bunch of meds I have to take, well, just two - one a few days before and one the day of the procedure. Having never had kids, my cervix has never dilated and it’s a muscle relaxant. Plus I’ll have to take one in three months when they test me.
So, of the list of meds Drain Bead had to take (quoted from the other thread)…
(a) “a month prior to the surgery i had to start the mini-pill to suppress my uterine lining”
(b) “The night before the surgery, I have to take a pill that softens my cervix.”
(c) “Then when I wake up, I take 800 mg of ibuprofen.”
(d) “An hour later, I take two percocet, a Valium, and a Zofran to help with the nausea that might be caused by the aforementioned drugs”
…you’ll only have to take what, (b) and (c)?
(Not counting whatever you take for the dye test.)
I hope you don’t mind the nitpicking: I would, of course, ask my own doc about all of this, too – and it might be different for everyone – I’m just trying to get as much advance info as I can.
Let me get on home - I have the list of everything I have to take. At the moment I only have two drugs that I picked up. Nothing about valium, percoset or anything else was mentioned. I’ll write about everything the doc said in detail, OK?
I have to take some Norethindrone starting day 3 of my period, and then one tablet of Misoprostol, inserted vaginally, the night before. Then, the dye test, three months later. I don’t have to take any of the other things, and have never taken any of them, but then I don’t have any drug allergies and respond very well to all drugs, so maybe it has something to do with that. I can pop some Ibuprofen that morning if I want, and after if there is pain, I’ll see if I need to ask him for something, but we’ll see.
I’ll post more as I get closer to the procedure, and after the procedure.
Misnomer, you could also consider Mirena, which is only five years, and there’s one other that’s for ten years that might be better for you. Permanence is a big deal.
I did not mean to imply that I was asking for every detail of your treatment; I just wondered how the meds were different now, 1.5 years after Drain Bead’s experience. Thanks for the info!
IUDs are not for me, plus any hormonal birth control seems to be contraindicated for me these days (pretty much my GYN’s exact words).
I’m not the one who has issues with permanence; my SO does. (We both have tattoos, and so understand what “permanent” means a little better than some others might.) But it’s not his body, so nyeh.
I did notice it was your SO and not you had permanence issues…I said it vaguely more because I was musing that in my own case the idea of permanence also took me aback. It took me some time to get used to it. Thankfully it was like two months between the appt. with my gyn and the surgical consult.
I don’t mind sharing the details of my treatment; if it’s helpful. I mean, I am not particularly squeamish about it.
One thing I was really pleased about was that no one tried to second-guess me. I said, I don’t want to have kids, and the doctor verified it once, and then we moved on.
I made my gyn laugh. When I said I was looking for longer term birth control, and she asked me what exactly I was looking for, I said, “Do you have anything that will last me through menopause?” (I’m 36). We both laughed.
I never had any mess of any sort beforehand, just sedation during and they gave me some Panadol and codeine mix beforehand too, so that it would have kicked in by the time I woke.
Mind you, mine was at least…wow, eight or so years back, when they were still introducing it to Australia, so they’ve probably refined things since then.
I haven’t had kids, so a few questions about “are you sure you want this, it’s permanent”, but no major hassles on that score.
It was just day surgery - in in the morning, out again that evening, some discomfort but minor enough that overe the counter pain relievers handled it easily, and back at work the next day.
I just had my essure procedure done yesterday. I have read many,many complaints of long term side effects and painful procedures. However mine went extremly well. The only discomfort I felt was while they were actually placing the coil in the tubes. When it was done I did have some mild cramping for the afternoon and light spotting. So far today I feel great and had little to nothing as far as spotting goes. I am feeling confident that this will be a great form of permanent birth control for us.
I guess I never came back to this thread. Well, it’s now been just over a year since I had the procedure done. The procedure itself was June 2012. It wasn’t a big deal at all, they put me in the twilight sleep and when I woke up, all done.
The only problem I had was the follow-up. In August of 2012 I went back to get my three month check. After I was in a gown and waiting in the room only THEN did they think to ask me if I had a shellfish or iodine allergy. I am allergic to shellfish, so they could not do the dye test.
Then the admin staff jerked me around a bit, sending me to a hospital and then not telling the doctor, but long story short, the doctor checked the “European way” - what he called it - using an ultrasound to make sure my tubes were blocked.
Everything looked good, he told me to wait a month or two just to be sure, and around September or October I stopped using condoms at all. (I’m in a long-term, committed relationship.)
There was a tiny bit of pain and spotting on the weekend after the procedure but after that I had nothing. No pain, no discomfort.
A year later I have no issues and frankly love it. It is SUCH a relief to not have to worry.
The only issue I had at all was the nurse made one comment “We’re doing Essure on a 36 year old woman who had no kids?” But my doctor was phenomenal. I loved him, and that’s why I went back even after the admin staff screwed up, to do the final follow-up. And it was a fertility center, but I felt like the doctor truly understood the meaning of “fertility” - we all should be allowed to choose our fertility as we wish.
Good luck to you, kattdid. May your experience be as pleasant and simple as mine.
Good luck!
