No worries - it's all food for thought. I have no fear of Western medicine; however, I'm also a big fan of informed decision-making and am not afraid to question a physician (my mom is one, so there's that!). Appreciate all the input and hope this helps others here too if they are facing it.

While you did not ask for opinions regarding the Mirena IUD, I thought I'd chime in on that, too. I had a Mirena inserted after I had recovered from the birth of my third child. Except I started bleeding after the insertion. And I kept bleeding. I bled for two months straight, and my Gyn put me on low-level birth control pills in an effort to control the bleeding. But that did not work, and after 4-1/2 months I was still bleeding constantly. I finally had it removed because I just couldn't take it anymore.

And I guess looking back on my posts here, perhaps I am just a bleeder! Like I said, I did have heavy periods even when I was a teen, and I had almost overwhelming bleeding after the delivery of my children (which at the time I thought was normal, too, but looking back on it, perhaps was not). Birth control pills were the only thing that kept the bleeding in check, but after our family was complete I was unwilling to endure the other side-effects of hormonal birth control.

Anyway, if you would like to avoid surgery, then an IUD might be worth a try. But like anything else, they don't work out for everyone in terms of slowing or stopping bleeding.

Sending so much empathy on the iron deficiency stuf. My chronic iron deficiency (well, chronic if I don't take supplements) isn't caused by heavy menstrual bleeding - docs don't know what causes it - and I know how hard it is to deal with. There's just no way to describe that exhausted, walking-through-sand feeling. If you need any help around ways to get iron in your diet. Good luck with the dificult medical decisions you have to make. Your reply