Dear Internets,

Please tell me about your experiences with endometrial ablation. My gynecologist has suggested it as a possible way to deal with my menstrual cramps (still awful--we're at 800 mg ibuprofen, and that still only downgrades from OW to ow (with spikes of OW). She says her experience has been that it is quite successful. My acupuncturist, on the other hand, said immediately, "Oh, that never works." Her experience has been that women who get ablations almost always end up getting hysterectomies.

Because I'm on a lot of different drugs currently, and it looks like that's going to be a long term thing, I'm reluctant to go back on the Pill (also, there's the endless uterine drama of trying to find the one that works, but doesn't give me horrific side effects, and then there's the long-term effects of the Pill itself, and, and, and ...), but I'm a little skeeved by the whole idea of ablation, and there's also the fact that as a woman who started menstruating before the age of twelve, who has never been and never intends to be pregnant, and thus also has never lactated, I hit several of the risk factors for endometrial cancer--which ablation makes much more difficult to detect.

Basically, I don't like any of the options I can see, and I think I need more data. All comments, from the anecdotal to the clinical, will be gratefully welcomed.

And, as an apology for a very self-centered and overly share-y post, let me point out that "Blue Lace Agate" is available as a podcast at Lightspeed, as are many other fine stories, including one by mrissa. (I would link, but Lightspeed's site is currently down.)