Woman begged docs to remove womb due to painful period pains

Kacey Read, 21, from Brighton, suffers from a disease that gives her incredibly painful period cramps and wants a hysterectomy.

The former experimental linguistics student at UCL said that despite the condition seriously affecting her mental state, doctors refused to operate “because she might want kids one day”.

She said: “Every doctor said I’d grow out of it, but nearly ten years on I’m still getting cramps so severe that I pass out from the pain.

Kacey Read said she has been left suicidal due to the pain

“I’m tired of it making me so depressed that I can’t get out of bed for a week. I’m tired of having to plan my life around it.

“I’m tired of doctors taking away my autonomy and telling me they can’t operate because I might want kids one day.

“I’ve had suicidal thoughts because of this – it’s not about whether I have kids, it’s about whether I have any quality of life.

“I’m an adult and I’ve made my mind up, I want this to end.”

Ms Read said she first approached doctors when she was 13 years old after noticing her period pains were “far more painful” than she should thought they would be.

Doctors plied her with several birth control methods, she says, in an attempt to treat the condition.

The terrible pain has persisted, leaving it hard for her to hold down a job.

Period pain is common and a normal part of the menstrual cycle. However, it can be caused by an underlying medical condition.

These could include endometriosis, where cells that normally line the womb grow in other places, fibroids, non-cancerous tumours that can grow in or around the womb, and adenomyosis – where the tissue that normally lines the womb starts to grow within the muscular womb wall.

Ms Read says doctors have been “very hesitant” to diagnose her with any specific condition “because then they would have to do something about it”.

She is now fundraising to raise £8,500 to get a hysterectomy – a surgical procedure to remove the womb – done privately.

She said: “It will mean I won’t have to face four/five days of unbearable pain – and I won’t have to keep calling in sick.

“In terms of my mood, it’s not an instant fix, but I’m hoping it will help. I think this is the perfect treatment. I can finally have autonomy over my body.

"It's not fair that I have to try and raise £8,500 just to be in control of my own life. I don't want to be doing this, but it's my only hope."

You can donate to Ms Read’s fundraiser by clicking this link.