Brown MD Hello! I am a 47 year old woman who has had the Essure procedure for 'permanent' birth control had the follow-up dye process where they verified that everything was 'blocked' etc. and it did show that I was good to go. I also have had an endometrial ablation several months ago which helped immensely with excessive bleeding issues. I understand that it is extremely dangerous to get pregnant if one has had an ablation and that most doctors recommend Essure or a tubal before they will even do an ablation. My concern is that Essure is not 100% effective.........99.8 but there is that .02 and SOMEBODY has to be that .02. Given that it would be very dangerous for me should I ever get pregnant along with the fact that I am 47 and a pregnancy would NOT be good for me at this point in my life do I 'go with the odds' of hoping I am never in that .02 or would a secondary B/C method be advised??? Given my age the chances of getting pregnant from what I understand are already very low but not impossible. Same with the Essure. Not impossible but not likely. I found in a professional journal article where 700 women over a 10-year period got pregnant with Essure some who had also completed the dye process and were also told that they were 'blocked'. Some the reason why it didn't work was never found. I have also found a few online boards where women are reporting pregnancies years later after getting the Essure. Thoughts? Recommendations??
2014-11-19 10:37:38
Hi! If you were my patient i would advise you that you probably don't need to use two forms of birth control. The Essure is quite protective (you're right NOT 100%) and your age also makes pregnancy very unlikely. IF however you are going to worry constantly and not enjoy your lovelife because of anxiety about pregnancy then two methods might make sense. A diaphragm is probably the best option because it is non-hormonal. It would possibly be very difficult to insert an IUD because of the ablation. Pills patch or vaginal ring are an option if you don't smoke but these have side effects and health risks of their own. I will be interested to see what other members have to say! Good luck!
2014-11-19 10:38:08
