I finally found my answer and I am hoping I can help someone else in my same situation.
4 years ago, I started bleeding heavy...and it just wouldn’t stop. I sought help from a gynecologist who diagnosed me with an ovarian cyst and said taking birth control should shrink it. I started the pills, and my bleeding stopped. A couple months later I started bleeding mid-cycle. I went back to the gyn, and she said the cyst was gone, but if I was having mid-cycle bleeding, we should try another pill. So I did for a couple months with no relief. The bleeding would still occur every couple weeks. The gyn said, "Maybe you just need to take a break from them. Stop them for a month and then we'll see where you are."
This went on for 3 years. I would take pills, they wouldn't work, I'd stop them to see if my body would regulate, it wouldn't, so they'd start me on a new pill.
Finally, my gyn diagnosed me with a polyp. I was scheduled for a D&C surgery to scrape the insides of my uterus & remove it.
When they got inside that they discovered it wasn't a polyp. I had a slight separation in my uterus known as a "sub-septate" uterus (a septate is completely split, sub-septate is only partially split). They decided the two "sides" weren't in sync, and they went ahead with the D&C hoping the bleeding would all be in sync from now own.
Wrong again.
After this (as well as an MRI to confirm) they tried more pill & then NuvaRing. NOTHING WORKED. I switched health insurance and had yet another gyn, and she thought she would try continuous horomal control--Seasonale. This didn't work either.
Then it was time for the big guns. Depo provera.
The depo shot sounded great. The Dr. said it would stop my bleeding in its tracks and would likely stop my periods all together. Only instead of this, it caused me to continuously bleed. I bled for the entire 3 months and decided i was done. I was done pumping my body full of hormones as they weren't helping anyway. All anyone wanted to do was give me more. But no doctor wanted to acknowledge they weren't helping. So after that last depo shot six months ago, I decided to stop with "treatment".
On my only depo shot, I bled continuously for 4 months. I was starting to get used to it. And then it finally stopped. It stopped for a couple weeks, then I bled on/off for a couple weeks, and as of now I have gone almost 3 weeks without bleeding.
I had been on Levora, Yaz, NuvaRing, DepoProvera, Sesonale, Solia, and a couple others I can't remember.
While on Depo, I had my last gyn appoinment with a new doctor. She wanted me to have yet another ultrasound. She said everything looked normal; she saw the split, saw a follicle that was growing, and that was all good...Except one thing I caught onto. Follicles don't grow unless you're ovulating. Ovulating shouldn't happen if you're on any birth control. I asked the doctor, and she said, "Huh. That's weird." And that was all.
A couple days ago, everything clicked. I suddenly realized my problem didn't start until they put me on birth control. And I also put into play my ovulation. So I started google-ing. I searched something like, "birth control not suppressing ovulation". I found my information in this article: http://www.brooksidepress.org/Products/OBGYN_Morning_Rounds/Afternoon_Lectures/Fixing_Birth_Control_Pill_Problems.htm
"Some women taking birth control pills will notice that some of their periods are short and pleasant, and other periods long and unpleasant. This means that their birth control pill has effectively suppressed ovulation on some, but not all of her cycles.
...Because their ovulations are not suppressed, they get an ovulation-induced period in the middle of their cycle, as well as the progestin-withdrawal period that they provoke by stopping the pills briefly each month.
You see, aside from the contraceptive benefit, a woman who is not suppressed while taking birth control pills is usually worse off than if she weren’t taking birth control pills at all. She has all of her own hormones, but in addition has all the pill hormones. So rather than the somewhat reduced hormone levels we see in women when the pill is working well, her hormones will be somewhat elevated, contributing to heavy, lengthy flows, menstrual cramps, PMS, breast tenderness, and no improvement in acne."
OMG, this was me! To a "T"! I figured out in 5 minutes of google-ing what 7 gynecologists over the course of 4 years couldn't figure out. I have wasted sooo much time, tears and money on this problem. So, so much money...money on countless sanitary products, appointments, prescriptions...Nevermind the unnecessary surgery and MRI I had.
It makes me so mad that even now when I type "mid-cycle bleeding" in any search engine, all come up with problems of cysts, polyps,
4 years ago, I started bleeding heavy...and it just wouldn’t stop. I sought help from a gynecologist who diagnosed me with an ovarian cyst and said taking birth control should shrink it. I started the pills, and my bleeding stopped. A couple months later I started bleeding mid-cycle. I went back to the gyn, and she said the cyst was gone, but if I was having mid-cycle bleeding, we should try another pill. So I did for a couple months with no relief. The bleeding would still occur every couple weeks. The gyn said, "Maybe you just need to take a break from them. Stop them for a month and then we'll see where you are."
This went on for 3 years. I would take pills, they wouldn't work, I'd stop them to see if my body would regulate, it wouldn't, so they'd start me on a new pill.
Finally, my gyn diagnosed me with a polyp. I was scheduled for a D&C surgery to scrape the insides of my uterus & remove it.
When they got inside that they discovered it wasn't a polyp. I had a slight separation in my uterus known as a "sub-septate" uterus (a septate is completely split, sub-septate is only partially split). They decided the two "sides" weren't in sync, and they went ahead with the D&C hoping the bleeding would all be in sync from now own.
Wrong again.
After this (as well as an MRI to confirm) they tried more pill & then NuvaRing. NOTHING WORKED. I switched health insurance and had yet another gyn, and she thought she would try continuous horomal control--Seasonale. This didn't work either.
Then it was time for the big guns. Depo provera.
The depo shot sounded great. The Dr. said it would stop my bleeding in its tracks and would likely stop my periods all together. Only instead of this, it caused me to continuously bleed. I bled for the entire 3 months and decided i was done. I was done pumping my body full of hormones as they weren't helping anyway. All anyone wanted to do was give me more. But no doctor wanted to acknowledge they weren't helping. So after that last depo shot six months ago, I decided to stop with "treatment".
On my only depo shot, I bled continuously for 4 months. I was starting to get used to it. And then it finally stopped. It stopped for a couple weeks, then I bled on/off for a couple weeks, and as of now I have gone almost 3 weeks without bleeding.
I had been on Levora, Yaz, NuvaRing, DepoProvera, Sesonale, Solia, and a couple others I can't remember.
While on Depo, I had my last gyn appoinment with a new doctor. She wanted me to have yet another ultrasound. She said everything looked normal; she saw the split, saw a follicle that was growing, and that was all good...Except one thing I caught onto. Follicles don't grow unless you're ovulating. Ovulating shouldn't happen if you're on any birth control. I asked the doctor, and she said, "Huh. That's weird." And that was all.
A couple days ago, everything clicked. I suddenly realized my problem didn't start until they put me on birth control. And I also put into play my ovulation. So I started google-ing. I searched something like, "birth control not suppressing ovulation". I found my information in this article: http://www.brooksidepress.org/Products/OBGYN_Morning_Rounds/Afternoon_Lectures/Fixing_Birth_Control_Pill_Problems.htm
"Some women taking birth control pills will notice that some of their periods are short and pleasant, and other periods long and unpleasant. This means that their birth control pill has effectively suppressed ovulation on some, but not all of her cycles.
...Because their ovulations are not suppressed, they get an ovulation-induced period in the middle of their cycle, as well as the progestin-withdrawal period that they provoke by stopping the pills briefly each month.
You see, aside from the contraceptive benefit, a woman who is not suppressed while taking birth control pills is usually worse off than if she weren’t taking birth control pills at all. She has all of her own hormones, but in addition has all the pill hormones. So rather than the somewhat reduced hormone levels we see in women when the pill is working well, her hormones will be somewhat elevated, contributing to heavy, lengthy flows, menstrual cramps, PMS, breast tenderness, and no improvement in acne."
OMG, this was me! To a "T"! I figured out in 5 minutes of google-ing what 7 gynecologists over the course of 4 years couldn't figure out. I have wasted sooo much time, tears and money on this problem. So, so much money...money on countless sanitary products, appointments, prescriptions...Nevermind the unnecessary surgery and MRI I had.
It makes me so mad that even now when I type "mid-cycle bleeding" in any search engine, all come up with problems of cysts, polyps,