Blocked Tubes and Unusual Bleeding
Question
I am 30 years old, with one child. At the age of 21 I was diagnosed with distal tubal blockage. The short version, I had caps covering my tubes. I went through surgery to open them, and after that I had a hysterosalpingogram done and it seemed not to let the dye through. It was painful so the doctor stopped. I then went through a cycle of IVF and that failed. I have always been regular, a 28 days cycle but now in the last five months I have my period every 28 days but then I have bleeding 14 days after the first day of my period. It is usually a regular period again. And I have had sex with my husband previously. I have no pain and no bloating during the ovulation period, only bloating with my regular period.
My questions are: Can my tubes unblock themselves? What could be causing the bleeding? I really want to have a child but I can’t go through IVF again. It is too expensive. It financially ruined me last time. I live my life everyday, very sad, and no way to fix it. I just want to know if it is possible they can clear themselves.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Heather
Answer
Last Updated: December 30, 2014
Yours is a heartbreaking situation that many women share: the desire to have more children and not easily be able to. However, there is much that can be done. The history that you give is a little confusing to me. I am going to assume that you had your child before age 21 and that you are having regular cycles but with intermenstrual bleeding that occurs mid-cycle around day 14. I can also see in your question that possibly you are having 14 day cycles with periods occurring every 14 days.
It is doubtful that tubes would become “unblocked” after 9 years. Scar tissue sets in and the body cannot reverse this scar. Think of any scar that you might have on your skin. It is usually permanent though may reduce over time. Blocked tubes after a pregnancy can come from different sources but I would wonder mostly about an infection. Pelvic inflammatory disease caused by Chlamydia is especially worrisome as it can be silent but cause a lot of scarring. Perhaps this is where your tube damage came from. Tubal damage can be repaired in some cases by a gynecologic surgeon depending on the location and amount of damage.
The unusual bleeding in the mid-cycle can be from several different sources. If it is just spot bleeding, it could be that the progesterone is not increasing quickly or adequately. Progesterone is the main hormone after ovulation whereas estrogen is the main hormone before ovulation. The estrogen thickens the lining of the uterus (womb) and the progesterone puts lots of small blood vessels there in case of a pregnancy and stabilizes the thickened lining. If the progesterone does not kick in quickly enough or at a sufficient level, the lining of the uterus will start to slough off. This gives the woman mid-cycle bleeding. If the progesterone never gets up to normal levels, she will have the appearance of a period although abnormal. Therefore she thinks she is having a period every two weeks when actually she is having irregular bleeding. It is also doubtful that she is ovulating regularly. Of course, this bleeding may be a sign of infection or other disease which needs to be checked out.
I would recommend that you would contact a certified natural family planning teacher who would teach you how to chart your cycles. The CANFP website can help you with contacts. When you chart your cycles, you are developing a record of medically relevant information. This would help to determine how much bleeding and what kind of bleeding you are having. After a couple of months of charting, the pertinent tests could be done in coordination with your cycles. If they are done randomly, they have no meaning.
This will help to gather information on why you are experiencing all of these changes. Sometimes it is easily treated but sometimes it requires much more help such as surgery. Your first step is to learn how to chart your cycles which will be a great boost in your health care!
I sincerely hope that this will help!
Dr. Gretchen Marsh
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