This is an older post, republished from an old, now dead blog.

My last month of Lupron is over and done with. And I’m not sorry to see it go.

I won’t miss the intense and constant headaches. The cravings. The weight gain. The hot flushes in hot weather. The moodiness.

Lupron didn't help

As it hasn’t helped the bleeding from the endometriosis in my bowel, I stopped the injections at 3 months, instead of doing the full 6 month course.

No point going through head-splitting hell when it wasn’t doing what we wanted it to do!

So, back on the combination of Visanne and Mirena. They say it should stop all period bleeding, except for the monthly bleed from the bowel endometriosis, like before.

But happily, without the terrible side effects of Lupron!

Mirena replacement

My current Mirena is nearly out of date, so it will be replaced at the end of this year. Most likely the hormones that it releases have been too low a level for about a year (as happened with my previous one), which would contribute to the more rapid growth of adenomyosis, and regrowth of the endo.

But the doctors stick rigidly to the rules here - it has a recommended lifespan of 5 years, so they will replace it after 5 years and not earlier, unlike in Australia. My specialist surgeon there had said the hormones start decreasing around the 4 year mark.

I’ve convinced them to put me under for a short time while they remove the old and insert the new. They wanted to do this without any pain killers, let alone a short general anaesthetic.

I did that once, and nearly passed out from the pain. I have never felt anything that bad in my life!

Edit - the local hospital gynaecologist/surgeon changed their mind, and said they would not replace it until it was about 10-12 years old, and then, the procedure would be done in a chair without anaesthetic.

I went and found a good endometriosis specialist surgeon in Berlin after that visit.

Hello again Visanne

The re-start of the Visanne has been a bit rough, although I can’t point to the causes of the strange symptoms.

Dizziness, almost fainting, occasional headache, and complete lack of hunger. Could be stress, exhaustion (moving house), hormonal re-balancing, a virus (my immune system is shot) … any number of things!

After I’ve moved house, when the cats are resettled, I have a trip back to Australia.  I’ll be glad when the busy-ness of the last and next few months is over, and things are back to ‘normal’.


endometriosis medication