A woman who suffers with period pains so agonising they leave her suicidal, says doctors won’t remove womb in case she decides she wants children.
Kacey Read has suffered with horrific period pains since she was 12. The pain gets so bad that screams involuntarily, vomits and sometimes even passes out.
Doctors have tried the 21-year-old on various birth control methods to manage the pain, but have had no success. Kacey says the pain and her symptoms mean she is unable to hold down a job.
Kacey has begged doctors to remove her womb to stop the pain and help her mental state, but said they refused due to the fact she might want kids one day.
So now, the graduate is crowdfunding to pay for the operation privately.
‘Every doctor said I’d grow out of it, but nearly ten years on I’m still getting cramps so severe that I pass out from the pain,’ says Kacey, from Brighton.
‘It isn’t just the physical pain I experience, but also the cyclical emotional dips I go through because of my periods. So I really don’t get a day’s rest.
‘I’m tired of it making me so depressed that I can’t get out of bed for a week. I’m tired of having to plan my life around it.’
Kacey says that every time she has asked about the possibility of a hysterectomy, medical professionals have dismissed her.
‘I’ve been told that it’s not possible, I’m too extreme and that it would “destroy me as a woman”,’ she explains.
‘I’m tired of doctors taking away my autonomy and telling me they can’t operate because I might want kids one day.
‘I’ve had suicidal thoughts because of this – it’s not about whether I have kids, it’s about whether I have any quality of life. I’m an adult and I’ve made my mind up, I want this to end.’
Kacey’s extreme period pain is likely to have been caused by an underlying medical condition, such as endometriosis or adenomyosis.
She has never been formerly diagnosed with either of these conditions, which are known to be incredibly hard to diagnose, women often suffer for years before they are officially given a diagnosis.
Kacey was due to undergo an investigative laparoscopy to see if she has endometriosis, but sadly the procedure has been cancelled twice over the past year due to Covid-19.
After doctors refused to perform a hysterectomy, Kacey is now fundraising for the surgery and hopes to raise £8,500 for both the procedure and consultation appointments.
She says: ‘It will mean I won’t have to face four or five days of unbearable pain – and I won’t have to keep calling in sick.
‘In terms of my mood, it’s not an instant fix, but I’m hoping it will help. I think this is the perfect treatment. I can finally have autonomy over my body.
‘It’s not fair that I have to try and raise £8,500 just to be in control of my own life. I don’t want to be doing this, but it’s my only hope.’
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