"Three-minute op saved me from a hysterectomy"

Menstruation for Donna Madigan was so severe she couldn't go to work. The last thing the mother of two wanted was the trauma of having her womb removed. She was saved by a three-minute operation that her GP hadn't been aware of.

Donna, 48, faced a total hysterectomy – a major operation to remove her womb and cervix – to treat heavy periods.

Then she was offered a pioneering treatment called microwave endometrial ablation (MEA).

A hysterectomy takes at least an hour to perform and patients can take months to recover. They also often experience strong emotional reactions and a sense of loss.

MEA involves inserting a hand-held wand into the womb. The wand emits low energy microwaves which cause the tissue which lines the womb to heat, The temperature of the tissue is maintained between 70°C and 80°C – enough to remove the lining, leaving the womb intact.

It takes less than five minutes to perform and patients can be back on their feet within hours.

Donna suffered for three years from extremely heavy periods, a condition called menorrhagia that can affect women from their late thirties.

She remembers: "My periods would come almost every two weeks and they were excruciatingly painful.  I couldn't go to work, I couldn't even stand up – the pain used to run down my legs and past my knees."

Donna's local GP referred her to a number of gynaecologists, who all told her a hysterectomy was the only cure.

"But I'd heard so many horror stories about hysterectomies and women who had become sick. A hysterectomy is a big operation and it would have taken me a long time to recover."

It was a friend, a registered nurse, who recommended a gynaecologist successfully treating women with the MEA treatment. Donna asked her GP - who hadn’t heard of the procedure - to refer her.

"Since having the MEA procedure almost 18 months ago I have had no bleeding whatsoever, and my life is pain free. It's such a relief.  It was a day procedure, I went into hospital in the morning and I was home by the afternoon feeling absolutely fine.

"It has completely changed my life. It’s a shame a lot more women – and their GPs – don't know about it. If it wasn't for my girlfriend I would have had a hysterectomy."