NovaSure®: Lighten Your Period Without Hormones

You dread the arrival of your period, which tends to hijack your life for a week or so thanks to heavy bleeding. You’re in good company — more than 10 million women in the United States (about 1 in 5) struggle with heavy bleeding.

While you’re anxious to find a solution that can restore your quality of life, you’ve ruled out hormonal medications because of experience or theory.

It might be time to explore another possibility — NovaSure®. At Tahoe Women’s Care, Dr. Gary Willen and our team offer the NovaSure treatment, and we’ve helped many of our patients reclaim their lives from heavy bleeding, once and for all.

Here’s a look at how NovaSure works.

Behind the heavy bleeding

Each month, your uterus goes through a cycle to prepare itself for conception and pregnancy. During this cycle, your ovaries release an egg and the lining of your uterus thickens with tissue and blood to receive the egg after fertilization.

When a fertilized egg doesn’t arrive, the tissue and blood sheds out, creating your period, and your uterus begins the cycle all over again.

The reason why we’re reviewing these basics is to underscore the fact that bleeding, heavy or otherwise, comes from the lining of your uterus called the endometrium.

Addressing the cause of your heavy bleeding

One way to address heavy bleeding is through hormonal medications that control your menstrual cycles. If you don't do well on these medications or you don’t like the idea of tinkering with your reproductive hormones, NovaSure may be a great solution. It’s important to note that the NovaSure procedure is only for women who are not planning on having children afterward.

In the simplest of terms, with NovaSure, we ablate the lining of your uterus while leaving the organ intact. To do this, we insert a wand through your vagina and into your uterus. Once the wand is in position, we release a net that covers the interior of your uterus. Next, we deliver a radiofrequency current through the net for just 90 seconds, and then we remove the net and the wand.

In total, the NovaSure procedure takes us only minutes to administer, and we can perform it right in our office. Rest assured, we provide you with a local anesthetic so that you’re comfortable throughout the entire procedure.

Afterward, you may experience cramping, bleeding, and discharge for a day or two, but these side effects are generally short-lived.

Looking ahead is where the reward of the NovaSure procedure happens. Future periods will be far lighter, and many women have no periods at all after the procedure.

If you want to explore whether NovaSure might hold the key for improving your quality of life, please contact our office in Carson City, Nevada, to set up a consultation.