'Every month I became a prisoner in my own home': How Yvette Fielding battled with excruciatingly painful periods for three decades

'Every month I became a prisoner in my own home': How Yvette Fielding battled with excruciatingly painful periods for three decades

Since her early teens, TV presenter Yvette Fielding, 43, suffered from debilitating periods, which often left her unable to leave the house.

That was, as she tells us below, until a unique operation gave her back her life..

The day I arrived at a ­studio ­teary-eyed and apologetic is one I’ll never forget.

I was filming a property game show called Under Offer and had minutes before filming, but I was a mess. Just before arriving, I’d started my period.

For most women, this would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience. A quick trip to the loo and it would be sorted. But it was an utter catastrophe.

Each month, I would bleed so heavily â€" for 10 days’ solid â€" it would soak through my clothes.

No amount of sanitary ­products could contain it.

I was forced to take a change of outfit everywhere, but even then, I still had to suffer the humiliation of having to explain to ­camera crews why I was rushing off.

Thankfully, my excruciatingly painful periods didn’t destroy my career. But they did wreck my life in other ways.

It got to the point where I couldn’t go out with friends or even take my children William, now 18, and Mary, 12, anywhere because I couldn’t run the risk of what might happen.

For almost half of every month, I was a virtual prisoner in my own home. My life became a living nightmare. My periods had always been bad but never this bad.

I remember when they started at 13. I was curled up on the sofa in agony and had bled so much my mum called the doctor out. I didn’t understand what was happening to my body.

The doctor put me on the Pill straight away and said this would help minimise the bleeding and help with the pain.

Throughout my late teens and early 20s, as I began forging a career for myself in TV, I wouldn’t say I looked forward to the time of the month, but I could ­manage with a good dose of painkillers.< /p>

I joined BBC One’s Blue Peter at the age of 18 and life was good. But after I met my husband Karl Beattie, now 49, and had William when I was 25, everything changed.

Blue Peter star: Aged 18 with her TV colleagues

The first period I had after giving birth was horrendous. I bled so heavily I had to carry a spare pair of clothes because I would just bleed through.

I remember one time I was at my ­parents’ house. Karl and I were ­having dinner with them when all of a sudden, it looked like someone had slashed me with a knife.

Karl scooped me up in his arms and ran to the bathroom. He stood me up in the bath and just showered me down but the blood kept coming out.

He called a doctor out and I was given Cyklokapron to reduce the heaviness of the bleeding. But this made no difference an d it got so bad.

I became anaemic, I felt tired, dizzy and drained, too, because I couldn’t sleep through the pain.

I was taking lots of painkillers and I didn’t like popping so many pills but had no choice.

Falling pregnant with Mary gave me some relief. It was bliss being pregnant and not having to worry about having periods for nine months.

I prayed that the pregnancy would help but it didn’t. It made things worse. I remember saying to Karl one night, “I can’t live like this any more.” I was depressed, exhausted, and had no life.

Even when filming I was ­constantly anxious. I tried to arrange work as best as I could around my cycle but sometimes it was impossible.

The day I arrived at the studio covered in blood, back in 2000, was humiliating.

I was ­sobbing and the changing room girls kindly ushered me in and helped sort me out.

The crew had to stop ­recording every 20 minutes so I could check myself.

D octors prescribed different pills to try to help, but all they seemed to do was make me put on weight.

One time in my mid-30s, I went from 9st to 11st. I had awful mood swings, too, and got so depressed that in the end I stopped taking them. I resigned myself to the fact I’d have to put up with it.

The worst was when I began ­presenting the ghost series Most Haunted in May 2002 on Sky’s Living TV.

Doing the ­recorded shows wasn’t too bad, as I was also the show’s producer, so I tried to arrange filming as much as I could around my cycle.

But when the live shows launched, we were often filming at night, and we’d be live. Filming was ­scheduled around dates like Halloween, too.

I’d just have to carry on. I had no choice but to dose up with painkillers on those days and pray I wouldn’t be unlucky.

My problem finally came to a head in January 2008 when I decided to have a endometrial resection or a ‘partial’ ­hysterectomy .

My friend Liz suggested it after she found me crying in the toilet.

She’d also suffered from heavy periods and had opted to have a hysterectomy when she was 50. It had changed her life.

Although it seemed like a drastic solution, I was desperate.

Support: Yvette with husband Karl

That April, I saw consultant gynaecologist Clive Spence-Jones at the London Clinic in Harley Street.

He told me all about the operation â€" he would remove the uterus, which would stop my periods, but leave the ovaries and cervix there, which would prevent me from going into early ­menopause.

So, in effect, it would be a partial hysterectomy, not a full one.

He asked if I was sure I wanted to go ahead. “You’re still young enough to have more children and may regret this one day,” he warned.

But I was sure. Karl and I had two beautiful kids and didn’t want any more. I just wanted my life back.

The surgery was a miracle. I had it in Novem ber 2008 and from then on, I had no more bleeding, no more pain, no more suffering.

I was a bit sore after, and had to stay in ­hospital for a week, and take it easy at home, but it was so worth it.

Finally, I could go out with friends, take Mary out shopping without worrying about having another ‘disaster’, and live a normal life.

I have renewed energy and feel like I could take on the world. In fact, straight after the surgery I decided to embark on a new healthy eating and fitness regime.

I took up horse riding and ­skipping and lost two-and-a-half stone.

I am now a healthy size 10 and feel like a whole new woman. I just wish I’d had the operation sooner.

What is an endometrial resection?

Professor John Studd of the London PMS and Menopause Clinic explains: “Women who suffer heavy or painful menstrual bleeding may be given the Pill first to try to reduce the blood loss and if this fails, a coil, which contains progesto gen is inserted into the cavity.

“The other option is an ­endometrial resection, the op Yvette had, which, in her, case, is performed through the ­vagina via the cervix removing much or all of the endometrium.

“But it can also now be performed by keyhole surgery so is less ­traumatic.

"A narrow telescope called a ­laparoscope is inserted through a small cut in the belly button, and then small surgical instruments are inserted into the abdomen through one or two other small cuts in the abdominal wall to remove or destroy the womb lining.

“An endometrial resection is best if the woman does not want any more children.

"In a full hysterectomy, the ovaries and cervix are also removed but this brings on early menopause, which some women want to avoid.”