Dawn’s Fibroids Story
“When you are trying to convey the pain you are in, it is really difficult for other people to grasp because they can’t see what is truly going on on the inside - and we [as a society] have also normalised pain, and even extreme pain, as just part of being a woman.’ ”
Imagine the contents of a nicely stocked fruit bowl. Some apples, some grapes and maybe a really nice grapefruit. Now imagine walking around with that fruit bowl in your uterus. Turns out that that was exactly what Dawn did - except it was fibroids.
When she was in her early thirties Dawn started experiencing some strange pains in her abdomen. At the time Dawn was working in a very stressful job, and for a long time, she just assumed that the stress was messing with her cycle, which had always been troublesome, with heavy periods and lots of pain. But still, there was something different about this pain: ‘this was next level and a kind of persistent knocking pain, and it wasn’t just happening around the time of my period.’
Going to see the GP
When the symptoms didn’t let up, Dawn decided to go see her GP. This was not the first time Dawn had been to the doctors to discuss painful periods. When she was a teenager her mum had taken her to see the GP, when the pain her daughter was experiencing every month was too much for her to witness. And over the years Dawn had been back several times asking for help.
At first, Dawn had been prescribed painkillers but they, in Dawn’s mum’s words made her all: ‘loopy, which isn’t great. Especially not when you’re a teenager.’
At school, all of the girls were talking about the pill and how some brands, allegedly, could stop your periods completely. Dawn thought it was worth a shot and went to a family planning clinic to get a prescription. As with so many others who go on the pill though, the contraception ended up masking a lot of what was really going on with Dawn’s body.
Now 16 years later, sitting in that GPs office, Dawn started feeling dismissed: ‘maybe because he could see on my file that I had historically come in several times to discuss period pain, he just said that it was probably linked to that. There wasn’t any discussion about doing further investigations.’
Getting her pain taken seriously
Dawn decided to ask to see one of her GPs female colleagues instead: ‘I hoped that maybe a woman would be more understanding of my situation.’
This time her reports of pain were taken seriously: ‘she sent me for scans as she suspected I might have an ovarian cyst. It wasn’t really explained what that meant, which freaked me out a little, but on the other hand, I felt reassured that I’d be getting some answers soon.‘
Dawn had an external ultrasound and was told that they’d found two fibroids - both smallish, measuring at 4 cm, and not in a location that was any cause for concern, so Dawn was referred back to her GP. Back in her GP's office, it was explained to Dawn that fibroids are non-cancerous growths and nothing to worry about: ‘just manage the pain with paracetamol and hot water bottles.’
Managing increasing pain
What followed was six years of increasing pain, and Dawn returned to the GPs office time and time again, asking for help. And time and time again she was told that this was just residual pain from the fibroids - the sort of pain that lots and lots of women deal with every day and nothing to worry about. Just load up that hot water bottle!
In the meantime, Dawn had changed jobs, and a year ago she managed to get herself on to her company’s private health care policy. A colleague suggested that Dawn try and see if she could get help with the fibroids on the private health insurance.
Getting a Myomectomy
Dawn went to see a consultant, who immediately booked her in for a pelvic exam and determined that there were now at least six fibroids. ‘They recommended that I had a myomectomy to remove them. I was given a plan of action to consider, and in January I ended up going in for surgery. The surgeon removed 16 uterine fibroids - one of which was the size of a grapefruit!’
‘When I first got out of surgery, my partner and mum were absolutely horrified to learn that they’d removed 16 fibroids, and they couldn’t believe that I’d been walking around with that in my body. When you are trying to convey the pain you are in, it is really difficult for other people to grasp because they can’t see what is truly going on on the inside - and we [as a society] have also normalised pain, and even extreme pain, as just part of being a woman.’
Dawn’s recovery was a bumpy ride. It took around 10 weeks as her wounds wouldn’t heal properly and about a week after the surgery, she even ended up in the hospital again, needing a blood transfusion. Now, five months after the surgery, Dawn is feeling much better and she and her partner are hoping to start a new chapter in life: parenthood.
Her advice for other women
When asked what advice she’d give to other women in the same situation:
‘I know that a lot of people don’t have access to private health insurance, but sometimes, at your place of work, it is there, but it’s just hidden in the policies. So always investigate if you have access to private health care.
‘When my GP kept saying that I was just experiencing residual pain, I wish I had pushed harder and researched what options of treatments might have been available to me. I wish I hadn’t just taken his word as gospel. Maybe if I’d had more medical investigations, and sooner, I could have avoided having major surgery.
‘If you are diagnosed with fibroids ask where they are and if it can impact your fertility. My partner and I started getting serious about starting a family maybe six months before my surgery, and nothing happened. Because of where some of them were situated and that potentially have impacted my ability to conceive, we are now hoping that with all of them removed, we can conceive without any medical intervention.’
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