How I Beat Anemia and Debilitating Cramps

Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash

Since I can remember, my periods have always given me embarrassing issues. From my very first period, starting during “Take Your Daughter to Work Day”, (actual blessing in disguise) and my mom announcing to all her coworkers that I’ve bloomed into a woman and all throughout high school and college, missing out on important events and Friday night cheerleading duties. My period always came with debilitating cramps that I thought was all part of the package. I thought I had all the right tools, my heating pad, hot tea, and tried all sorts of remedies. Nothing ever worked except for time for the cramps to end.

Fast forward to the college to working young adult transition, I was at a super stressful job and I started to notice my body wasn’t having the usual ‘cramps’, something bad was happening. My flow became heavier than usual and lasting much longer.

And then this eye-opening experience that resulted in my second ER experience:

It was the second day of my period and the flow was so heavy, with clots, that one pad lasted about an hour. After commuting home, I could no longer sit normally and was keeled over. My parents took me to the ER where the ER Doctor said he wasn’t letting me go home because I needed a blood transfusion. Turns out, I lost a LOT of blood that one day alone and my body wasn’t producing enough blood. (WHAT?)

After receiving two bags of blood, I felt like a new woman. I had this new energy that I hadn’t felt in years and I went on with life, with the addition of an iron pill. Fast forward the next two months, the unusual heavy bleeding and clots were back.

(Rewind about four years prior to my first ER experience. It was horrible. I had a male ER doctor who basically said I was overreacting because of cramps. He took forever to see me and it was a traumatizing experience. Shame on him and all doctors who brush off women in this situation. If he had taken the best measures for me, this entire situation could have been prevented…but I digress.)

I started to mentally mark all the red flags: constant exhaustion, hardly being able to get past a personal best in weight lifting, my white tongue, eating ice as if it were a meal, and despite my clean eating — always having a little fupa. Could this be endometriosis? Or Fibroids?

After almost planning my funeral from checking WebMD (please save your anxiety and skip this step), I finally contacted a specialist. Dr. Lisa Bhagan, MD is my lifesaver. I recommend visiting Dr. Bhagan ASAP if you have any sorts of questions. After blood tests, ultrasounds and exams, the official diagnosis was anemia, fibroids and endometriosis. Being anemic, the ‘normal but low’ number was 12, I was at a strong (cross out)4. And I had a fibroid so large attached to my uterus it literally had its own blood supply…yes, it was taking up all my blood. (Now I knew why the ultrasound technician in the ER kept asking me if I was pregnant. Nope, just a huge fibroid.) My new doctor was shocked at how I could go through life without passing out daily.

From here we decided on my plan. We decided surgery, a myomectomy, would be best to remove the fibroids. First, to help raise my blood levels, I was given the depo shot to stop my period, I was placed on an extra-large dose of iron supplements, eating beets for every other meal and going in for blood tests every two weeks. Fast forward three months, my blood levels were finally safe for surgery.

I was warned that the recovery would be at least a 6-week process, and I would experience significant exhaustion. This exhaustion is expected because your body is focused on recovering. I had a C-section incision and with the help of my constant morphine drip post-surgery, I felt zero discomfort.

One in every 10 women, about 5 million in the US, suffer from endometriosis. Many remain undiagnosed, so, this number may be significantly higher. Also, about 30 percent of women will develop fibroids by age 35. African American women develop fibroids two to three times more often than white and Hispanic women. Also, African American women develop problems with fibroids at an earlier age (hello, me), with the fibroids growing faster, becoming larger, and causing more bleeding and anemia than in women of other races. (Put me in a textbook why don’t ya?) (http://www.gynsurgeryinfo.org/fibroids/)

Fast forward one year, I am fully recovered and would recommend every woman of color to openly talk to your Doctor about your period pains and everything that comes with it. You don’t have to suffer in silence. Because I spoke up, I found out that my ‘normal’ cramps, weren’t normal and I was suffering from anemia, fibroids and endometriosis. I’m so happy to announce my periods are now manageable and lasts less than 4 days. I decided to share my story to help shed light on these diseases and hope at least one person speaks up.

(Originally posted on my Medium page!)