Hi All
I’m experiencing some unexpected bleeding - like a period but way heavier than my usual flow and lots of clots. I have simultaneous pain right behind where my ectopic surgery scar was. Anyone else had this before?
Dear Maylee
I am sorry to hear about your ectopic pregnancy and difficult time. While I am not a doctor, I will do my best to help.
After an ectopic pregnancy, some women report bleeding and spotting on and off for up to six weeks after treatment. I am unsure from your message as to when you experienced ectopic pregnancy treatment. If you are experiencing heavy bleeding, soaking more than a pad in an hour, please seek medical attention quickly.
Also there can be pain after surgery. Depending on what treatment route you have had, a varying amount of pain or discomfort may continue for several weeks afterwards as the healing process takes place and scarring continues to heal. This should lessen as time progresses. However, it is not unusual to still report some discomfort several months after an abdominal operation for ectopic pregnancy.
It is not unusual to feel pain and discomfort in the lower abdomen for some time after your treatment. Awareness of such feelings can also be heightened as a result of the experience of pregnancy loss and because of the frightening and distressing experience you had to go through. There are a number of reasons why you may be aware of the aches in your abdominal area:
- It could be that your normal cycle is trying to resume and the pain you are experiencing may be due to your body preparing to ovulate, or your period might be about to arrive
- It could be that your awareness of your menstrual cycle and your ovulation have been heightened. Many women report that they are aware of ovulation pain after an ectopic, when they never experienced it before
- It might simply be down to heightened perception and awareness because of the experience you have been through of your previous ectopic pregnancy
There is no clinical evidence that adhesions (scar tissue) directly cause pain. However, some people do associate the discomfort to scar tissue even though this is anecdotal and not scientific.
Pain is unique to the individual and if it is persistent and is becoming worrying, we would suggest that you keep a pain diary. Record in your diary when your period starts, when the abdominal pain is experienced and how the pain would be scored on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being no pain, 10 being severe pain requiring a trip to the hospital). Keep a record of what helps the pain, for example, heat (hot water bottle), exercise, rest, pain relief (make a note of what kind e.g., paracetamol). After about eight weeks, make a follow-up appointment with your doctor to discuss the diary records you have been keeping.
Keeping this diary enables you to follow-up with your doctor, with dates, times and evidence of how it is affecting you. This can be very helpful to medical practitioners when deciding how to manage the symptoms and side effects.
I hope that this information can help you get the care that you need.
Sending good wishes
Munira
The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust
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