Ramsgate endometriosis sufferer still fighting for hysterectomy despite traumatic stillbirth
Published: 06:00, 01 April 2024
A woman told she would never have children gave birth to a stillborn boy after her pregnancy was missed on an ultrasound.
Jilly-Anne Skinner has requested a hysterectomy for years while plagued with crippling pain caused by endometriosis and polycystic ovaries.
But now, the 33-year-old from Ramsgate is renewing her pleas following a harrowing stillbirth while alone on her bathroom floor, after an ultrasound missed that she was unknowingly pregnant.
Miss Skinner first lifted the lid on how her abdominal pains feel like “huge knives” plunged into her during a brave interview with KentOnline in 2021.
Now, she maintains the drastic operation would end her suffering, which involved a horrifying ordeal in 2022, where she gave birth to the stillborn boy without knowing she was pregnant
She explained how she unknowingly fell pregnant that year despite taking birth control and having regular medical appointments to monitor her abdomen.
She claims excruciating pain caused by her condition masked pregnancy symptoms until she began feeling particularly unwell.
Alone inside her bathroom, Miss Skinner’s condition suddenly deteriorated until, suddenly, she gave birth to her stillborn son on the floor.
Miss SKinner told KentOnline: “I was on birth control. I'd even taken the morning-after pill. I wasn't sleeping around.
“I was offered an operation to deal with some of my polycystic ovary symptoms and was put on hormonal medication to prepare my body for it.
“I was very unwell, but my consultant put this down to a side effect of the medication.
“And, with endometriosis and my other problems, I'm used to getting nausea and pelvic pain.
“It was during this period that I was pregnant.”
Miss Skinner says in 2022 she was admitted to A&E for intense abdominal pains caused by endometriosis.
She alleges an ultrasound scan missed the fact she was pregnant, with medics chalking the pains up to a urinary tract infection.
And at 25 weeks pregnant she put her heavy bleeding down to endometriosis – a condition which affects 1.5 million women in the the country.
“I was just constantly bleeding and had intense pain,” she recalled.
“I started to run a bath, and then I gave birth. I was home alone. To be honest, it's all a little bit of a blur.
“It's such a shock, even now.
“I was told for years that I couldn't get pregnant. Or, if I was to fall pregnant, I wouldn't be able to carry full-term due to the structure of my uterus.”
Miss Skinner who has never held the baby, mentally struggled to come to terms with the truama. His ashes are now with her at home.
“I spent the next three weeks trying to get my head around it and planning a funeral, which to be honest, just felt extremely alien,” she said.
Claiming doctors for years have overlooked the pain she has sufffered, Miss Skinner said: “I don't know how many boxes I have to tick before they just do it. It just feels a bit barbaric.”
Miss Skinner now has her gynaecology appointments at University College London Hospital (UCLH), after being referred from QEQM in Margate in 2018.
“If they had listened to me there six years ago, I wouldn’t have had to go through all that trauma, and I would have been diagnosed earlier.”
Now, she says her pain is “so much worse” than before the birth.
“It feels like I've got the weight of a bus from my lower abdomen down to my knees and around my back. It feels heavy.
“It’s like there’s knives inside trying to pull everything out.
“I also get quite ill on my period now, my skin feels feverish to touch.
“I get about five days a month now where I'm not in pain.”
Every month, she has flashbacks to the stillbirth, as she goes through similar pain.
She even moved home, away from the bathroom where the stillbirth happened as it haunted her.
Now, Miss Skinner is begging doctors to “make her pain stop for good” and give her a hysterectomy after other treatments failed.
A spokesperson for UCLH, where she attends the specialist gynaecology clinic, said: “We understand that adenomyosis, endometriosis and PCOS are painful and debilitating conditions and our specialist team works with patients to manage symptoms and discuss the treatment options available.
“We follow national guidelines which say that hysterectomy is a major operation with a long recovery time and so less invasive treatments should be tried first.”
Endometriosis is the name given to the condition where cells similar to the ones in the lining of the womb are found elsewhere in the body, according to the charity Endometriosis UK.
Each month these cells react in the same way as those in the womb, building up and then breaking down and bleeding.
Currently, there is no cure for endometriosis. The different treatments available aim to reduce the severity of symptoms and improve the quality of life for someone living with the condition.
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Millie Bowles