By the age of 16, Lauren Hodson’s period pain was so bad it was comparable to labour contractions.
She was bed-ridden for days with no relief from Naprogesics or Panadol.
“For the first two days of my period I could tell you which ovary I was ovulating from by the pain I was having from it,” Lauren tells host Sarah Harris in the latest instalment of our Wear White Again campaign.
She’d bravely battled on, thinking the vomiting and excessive bleeding was just how it was for everyone.
But the final straw came on the day she had to sit her driver’s learners permit.
When her mum saw Lauren doubled over in crippling pain, she knew she had to do something to help her. The contraceptive pill worked for a while, but it didn’t work forever.
“We then went to a Merina, an IUD. It releases hormones as your pill would or your Implanon would and it lasts for five years,” adds Lauren, who is sharing her story in the hope it will help other women with similar symptoms.
“It lasts for five years, and it’s so much easier. The heaviness dropped off a bit when I went on the pill; with the Merina it’s different again.
“Instead of having my period over seven days, what I would normally get over seven days compacts into two.
“Some women are lucky enough to not even get a period – I’m a little bit jealous of them, but I’ll take that two days and I’ll run with it after what I’ve had in the past.”
Lauren says that if her symptoms did happen to deteriorate in the future, she wouldn’t hesitate to undergo an endometrial ablation procedure, a minimally invasive five-minute procedure that removes the lining of the uterus.
“I’ve had my children now so in that aspect I don’t need to worry so much; I’m a bit older now, and it would definitely be the next course of action I believe.”
Need to know:
The Mirena is an Intrauterine device also known as an IUD. It’s a small plastic device in the shape of a ‘T’ with a hormone called levonorgestrel in its stem. It is placed inside the uterus to prevent pregnancy and lasts for five years. In many cases women stop having periods or experience very light periods.
This is a sponsored post by Wear White Again. All opinions expressed by the author are authentic and written in their own words.
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