by
Katrina Welch
“
It’s just a bad period, it’s a normal thing.” These are the words which were often echoed to a young Janelle Mellowes who suffered from excruciating pain each month when she experienced her menstrual cycle. At the tender age of eight, her cycle began without posing any major challenges for the first few years.
However, when she entered secondary school and as she progressed through her teenage years, the pain which she felt monthly, increased exponentially.
“I would go to the accident and emergency department of the hospital every month because the pain was excruciating. For the first two days I would vomit until nothing was coming up. They would put me on drips and give me medication causing me to sleep for a while, then my parents would take me back home. Pain killers never worked; they still don’t,” she explained.
Eventually her mother recognised that her symptoms required an appropriate diagnosis because apart from the pain, her periods were irregular. So, her mother took her to see a gynaecologist instead of the general practitioners who were dismissing her issues as simply a bad period. Even the birth control pill which she was prescribed did not work as hoped.
The chef by profession recounted how she eventually received her diagnosis in 2009. The second gynaecologist she saw prescribed Zoladex, a medication which is normally used for cancer treatment and can only be taken for six months. Even though she was still a teenager, this medication put her body into a menopausal state and stopped her period for six months.
At age 19 she migrated to St Kitts to start a new job and visited a gynaecologist in Nevis, who did an ultrasound but said a laparotomy would be needed to confirm if she had endometriosis. And it did. The diagnostic surgery revealed that her fallopian tubes were completely clogged up and she had a few cysts of varying sizes, with the largest approximately the size of an orange.
“I had the surgery, which involved a C-section cut in the morning, and in the evening I had to take my first steps to make sure I could still walk. I felt pressure in my pelvis and was completely winded. Then I couldn’t have anything solid,” she said. “The surgery went well but my period came three days later while I was still hospitalised and I had to stay longer because I was in excruciating pain. Then, for a while I had to shower out of the sink because I couldn’t get the stitches wet and to avoid a hernia I could not lift anything heavy.”
Post-surgery, the gynaecologist prescribed her birth control pills and Zoladex to halt her menstrual cycle. This was to allow her body to heal and reduce the further development of cysts, but unfortunately the latter issue still occurred. Additionally, the birth control pills caused nausea and significant weight gain. A year later, she moved back home to Barbados.
The godmother of three has always had a strong desire to have children of her own despite her endometriosis. She began to educate herself about her medical condition and visited the local fertility clinic to explore her options for conception.
“They did an ultrasound at the fertility clinic and saw I still had cysts. They also did an anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) test to determine my egg count, and it was extremely low for my age.
They suggested that I try to get pregnant soon or freeze my eggs as they were still of good quality.
I was told I would go through menopause earlier because of my situation,” she said. Following this assessment, she was referred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she was required to undergo surgery to have the cysts removed in 2014. In doing this surgery, they discovered lesions and scar tissue and had to remove part of her left ovary.
“This second surgery confirmed that I had stage four endometriosis.
After the surgery I was prescribed Norcolut which stopped my period completely, and I am still on that medication today,” she said. “It has had adverse effects on my body with the biggest one being that I gained a significant amount of weight. Then, I can be very emotional sometimes; things that wouldn’t normally bother me would feel like major issues. Other times I get sad and I’m all in my feelings for no reason.”
Routine medical checks such as a pap smear and a colposcopy are also extremely harrowing for her, due to the severe pain which she feels during these types of invasive examinations. Similarly, romantic relationships are also negatively impacted by her medical condition. “Endometriosis makes sex painful and causes bleeding. Sex can be uncomfortable until my body gets used to my partner’s organ,” she said.
Adding to this Janelle said, “The pain of endometriosis is debilitating. It is one of the top 20 pain conditions in the world. A lot of women go through so much with their endometriosis; some cannot work because they can’t do anything at all and some have even committed suicide.”
In 2017, her gynaecologist requested an assessment of her hormone levels. To do this, she was required to stop taking Norcolut so her regular menstrual cycle could resume. She then underwent blood tests and a procedure called a HyCoSy (Hysterosalpingo-contrastsonography) to determine if her fallopian tubes were open.
This test revealed that there was a ‘kink’ in her fallopian tube and her right ovary did not have many follicles. In fact, the left ovary, from which part had been removed in a previous surgery, had more follicles than the right ovary which was still whole. After the procedure, her Norculut prescription was resumed.
Apart from the physical toll which endometriosis has had on her body over the years, it has also placed her under significant emotional and psychological strain. The young culinary artist said, “For me, outside of the vomiting, having a period is traumatising. Sometimes I see the red and begin to cry. Over the years I have tried to have a period, just to feel normal but then I remember the pain and all I’ve been through.”
Despite it all, Janelle has not given up on her dream to become a mother. To this end the 31-year-old has decided to resume her menstrual cycle. “This year I want to start back my period because I want to be a mother and I have a friend willing to be a donor; but we are going to go through the traditional way,” she said with a laugh.
