tigercub

Ok, I see that a lot of you are having problems with Essure. I am wondering if there may be a correlation between being awake or under during the procedure. So if you are having problems with Essure were you awake during the procedure?

kym4

I was under general anesthesia. If it works better for women to be under then it kind of defeats the purpose of even having the procedure. The procedure is being marketed as quick recovery, no anesthesia and back to work the next day. In my opinion I don't think it matters if they put you under or not because this procedure no matter how it is done will still have all the "IF" factors. There will always be the potential for the metal coils to migrate.

ashisbaby17

Like any other procedure essure isn't 100% effective or 100% safe. Even if you use hormonal birth control there is a risk of clotted arteries, mood swings, and heart problems. I've been considering the essure procedure for about five years and I finally had it today. One thing I noticed about two years ago there were three screen names that I saw on yahoo answers, Aphrodite’s discussion, and a few other places that explained bad experiences with essure, standard tubal litigations, and vasectomy. Recently there was an article in the newspaper about a nationwide extremist group that is trying to get all form of birth control banned. So far Colorado is the only state who they have managed to get the proposal on the ballots but it got me thinking that there are a lot of people out there who will try to scare people to support their own views. I now there are people who have bad experiences but just like a political debate you always have the other side trying to use certain information to discredit something.

As for my personal experience I was nervous to start with since I don't like needles or hospitals so I threw up on the way to my parents house where a friend was picking me up at. I took the two vicoden and about halfway to the hospital it hit me bad. I felt really faint which is strange because vicoden never effected me that way. I had to lay down in the parking garage and security drove me to the door. I fell again in the elevator and had to throw up when I got to the floor. Doing the procedure was Dr. Connery at USF Medical Center at Tampa General. I was referred to her through my doctor at the VA and it made me very comfortable that she was a professor. They gave me a shot of a high dosage of Ibuprofen for inflammation and a shot of lidocaine to my cervix. After 15 minutes they started the procedure. Since I had never had kids they were not sure if they would be able to get my cervix to dilate enough for the laparoscope. After a lot of persistence and pain Dr. Connery managed to slowly get the laparoscope through my cervix and placed the first coil. The second coil took about at long and the whole procedure took 15 minutes. Once everything was remove the pressure pain slowly went away. I fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for a few hours afterwards. When I woke up I felt great. No pain or cramping but I was still a bit tired.

A few things I would suggest to anyone getting this procedure is 1) research your doctor. I know some people are limited due to insurance but look to see how long they have been practicing, how long they have been doing the procedure, and if they have any other specialized training (Dr. Connery specializes in management of abnormal bleeding) most doctors have biographies on their websites or you can always look for reviews from their patients online. 2) Ask your doctor if they have had anything unusual happen as a result of the procedure. (Doctor Connery told me she did have one patient who the procedure did not work on and it was due to the shape of her fallopian tubes.) 3) Expect some pain. I went in thinking it was going to be painful after the local anesthesia wore off but it actually hurt more during the procedure. 4) Plan on getting a wheel chair because you will feel faint for awhile and you don't want to be falling all over like I did.

ashisbaby17

I forgot to mention that the bleeding wasn't bad. It started out mild, almost like the last day of your period and then it turnned to a very slight spotting. I'll see how things are in the next couple of days.