Seven years of “it’s probably nothing”

I decided my family was complete. Simple enough.

The doctor was enthusiastic about a new sterilisation implant called Essure. In and out in twenty minutes. No surgery. No time off work. I wrote my nickel allergy on the consent form… no issues, she said, they’re fully encased.

The right one going in was so painful I thought I was going to pass out. I went home to sleep it off with ibuprofen.

That was the start of seven years.

I was a firefighter. I trained four times a week and rode horses. Then came the bloating, from a flat stomach to looking five months pregnant. Stabbing pains anywhere from my pelvis to my ribs. Joint pain. Headaches like a band around my head. Dizzy spells. A tiredness no amount of sleep touched.

So I did what you’re supposed to do. I went to the doctor. Again, and again.

A bowel referral, and sixteen months on a waiting list. A scan where the radiologist could only find one of my implants. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

Look at your diet. Probably your age and hormones.

Dizzy? Smaller meals, and stand up slower. I explained I was a firefighter. He laughed. “Just try to get up slower.”

And the one I’ll never forget… my pains were my body decaying with age.

Each answer on its own sounded reasonable. Nobody ever put them together.

In the end I found it myself, searching my symptoms late at night. Essure. And thousands of women describing exactly what I was living with.

Even then, a specialist told me he didn’t believe it. He found it “strange” that all these women were suddenly having problems.

It was a surgeon recommended by the Essure UK support group who finally recognised it straight away. In March 2022 I had a hysterectomy. The scarring was so bad my organs had fused together.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I could pay to go private, and I have my life back. Most women can’t.

I tried to make a difference through the NHS and government, and got a page added to NHS inform. It barely scratched the surface. And every time I shared my story, I heard another: autoimmune conditions, cluster headaches, strokes, missed cancers. The same feeling every time, of not being in control when you know something is wrong.

Looking back, what I needed wasn’t an app to tell me what was wrong. I needed my whole story in one place: every symptom, every date, every “it’s probably nothing”. So the pattern couldn’t be missed, and so I could walk into that ten-minute appointment and be taken seriously.

I had three big sisters to talk to. Not everyone does.

So I built SIS. Seen. Informed. Supported.

SIS exists for every woman who’s been told it’s “just” something.

Actually… SIS exists because I was that woman. 💗

Read my story in full, with every symptom and every appointment.

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Important: this is one woman’s experience, not medical advice. If something feels wrong, keep asking. If you have sudden severe pain, very heavy bleeding, fainting, or you feel very unwell, seek urgent medical help (NHS 111, or 999 in an emergency).