I did not have cancer but he prescribed a hormone
I started menstruating in June before I turned 11 in September. I think I developed endometriosis within a couple of months. My periods were a week long, very heavy, and very painful, especially the third day, when I would spend an hour or two on the toilet.
When I got up, the toilet would be full of glistening black-red feces. I know this sounds unpleasant. It was very unpleasant. I married at nineteen and became pregnant almost immediately.
To my astonishment, after the baby was born, my periods became painless. After about two and a half years the pain returned, and I at once decided it was time to become pregnant again.
But unfortunately, my husband wanted only two children. I wanted four, so we compromised on three. After that third was born, the doctor inserted an IUD to prevent further pregnancies. That was a nightmare.
I was an identification clerk at a police department, and my periods were so heavy I was constantly running to the restroom to change supplies. One day, I inserted three super-size tampons and put on two super-size pads.
As soon as I was out of the restroom, I was called to process a prisoner. This consisted of taking down information about his name, address, and so forth; fingerprinting him; and photographing him face on and profile.
By the time I got through, I had bled through everything including my skirt, and had to go home and change clothes. In a few months the IUD was removed.
After that, my periods were normal for me: three days of heavy bleeding and intense pain, and four days of light bleeding. But then I hit the age of 48.
All of a sudden my periods consisted of 11 days of heavy bleeding, 12 days of light bleeding, and 5 days of spotting. There was no day at all when I wasn’t having some bleeding. I went to my doctor, and he told me I’d just have to live with it until I completed menopause.
I left his office simmering with rage and called a gynecologist from the first pay phone I reached. The gynecologist ordered me into his office at once: my situation was symptomatic of cancer.
He did a thorough examination in which he filled my uterus and ovaries with gas so that he could see everything. Abruptly he asked, “How many miscarriages have you had?” I said, “None, that I know of.” He said, “But you’ve had no live births.” I said, “Yes, I’ve given birth to three children, and they’re all just fine.”
He then told me that I had two uteri, and a woman with that condition was almost never able to carry a pregnancy past three months. I was able to determine from that and memories of ovulation, which I always felt, that my 9#2oz and 9#14oz babies came from my right uterus and my 7#4oz baby came from my left uterus.
I did not have cancer, but he prescribed a hormone that at once put my periods back to normal. After a year and a half, I experimentally discontinued the hormone, and my periods stopped.
Two months went by, and no period. We keep a whiteboard in the hall, to track appointments, grocery lists, and so forth. Triumphantly, I drew a large fish on the whiteboard and wrote under it, “My minnow had paused!”
When I returned to the gynecologist, he said, “Now, some women don’t feel right if they’re not having periods. I can provide some medications that will let you–” “Are you crazy?” I asked.
I’m 65 now. The joy of not bleeding and hurting one fourth of every month remains–well, let’s say I still don’t want any medicines that would cause me to resume having periods. Oh, and I changed to a different usual doctor.