How NovaSure Can Help With Abnormal Bleeding

One in five women experiences heavy menstrual bleeding, a condition known as abnormal uterine bleeding.

If you’re one of those women, you know that heavy menstrual periods can be quite inconvenient, requiring you to change your tampons or pads as often as every hour and miss important events because of the threat of breakthrough bleeding.

You don’t have to let heavy menstrual periods wreak havoc on your life. Treatment with a procedure known as NovaSure can reduce or eliminate menstrual bleeding. NovaSure is a fast, safe procedure that delivers permanent results.

Interested in learning more? Read on. Your care providers at Associates in Women’s Health would like to share the following information with you about NovaSure.

What is NovaSure?

NovaSure is another name for endometrial ablation, a procedure that removes a thin layer of endometrial tissue in the lining of your uterus. By removing this tissue, NovaSure reduces or completely stops your menstrual blood flow.

NovaSure treatment takes just a few minutes. We perform it right here in our office at any time during your menstrual cycle. The procedure is safe, effective, and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

What to expect

Before having NovaSure treatment, your care provider performs an exam to make sure you are healthy. We check for conditions such as infections and cancer, and if you have an IUD we remove it.

During the procedure, your provider inserts an instrument through your vagina and cervix and into your uterus. (For comfort, you may receive a non-sedating local anesthetic in your uterus.) Once the instrument is in place, it delivers pulses of precisely measured radiofrequency energy to the lining of your uterus for about 90 seconds. The energy pulses remove endometrial tissue that is responsible for heavy menstrual bleeding.

Although the procedure takes only five minutes, we ask you to set aside about an hour for the entire process, and to have a friend or family member drive you home.

After the procedure you may experience cramps or temporary vaginal discharge of watery blood. These side effects typically last only for a few days, although for your comfort and convenience you may want to take some time off from work or school.

Within a couple of months, you will notice less bleeding during your periods. Your periods may even stop completely.  

Who can benefit from NovaSure?

Treatment with the NovaSure procedure may make sense for you if you:

• Have painful periods
• Have periods that last longer than seven days
• Experience bleeding that’s so heavy it requires you to change your tampons or pads frequently
• Have had breakthrough bleeding accidents or near misses
• Sit out activities because of fear of breakthrough bleeding accidents
• Miss work, school, meetings, sporting events, or social events because of heavy menstrual periods
• Feel exhausted or worn out during heavy bleeding days
• Feel stressed, anxious, or sad because of heavy periods
• Refrain from sex because of menstrual bleeding
• Feel that heavy periods are impacting your confidence and self-esteem
• Experience low iron levels (anemia) because of excessive bleeding

Keep using birth control

You should have NovaSure treatment only if you no longer wish to have children. Getting pregnant after NovaSure treatment is dangerous, raising your risk of pregnancy complications such as miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the uterus). We can help you decide which birth control to use.

Relief for heavy periods

If heavy periods are interfering with your quality of life, NovaSure may offer the solution you’re seeking. To learn more, call our office, or make an online appointment today.