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Throughout Joann Sisti’s life, the 49-year-old Hollis Hills woman’s menstrual cycle never gave her much trouble. While her friends would complain about heavy cycles and PMS symptoms she would go on with her monthly routine without even a hint of a cramp.

In December 2004 everything changed though. Her menstrual flow was heavier than it had ever been and all those complaints she had heard over the years were now coming from her mouth.

Sisti had failed to get her period for four months and assumed she was simply entering menopause, ending her cycle altogether. Then the bleeding began. She experienced large blood clots that even made it difficult to walk any distance.

“I thought I was bleeding to death,” Sisti said.

Concerned the bleeding could be the result of something more than missing her period for four months, Sisti saw the director of obstetrics/gynecology at North Shore University Hospital, Dr. Claudia Ravins, in Forest Hills who performed a biopsy of her endometrium and confirmed there was no sign of cancer. It was then, though, that Ravins noticed Sisti had a very think endometrium and recommended a procedure that would transform her life back to normal.

Through a procedure with NovaSure, a next-generation endometrial ablation device, a doctor was able to permanently destroy the uterine lining that produces menstrual bleeding using precisely measured radio frequency energy, instead of opting for an invasive procedure such as a hysterectomy, which often carries major hormonal issues.
Sisti’s story is not all that uncommon, especially in Queens where Dr. Ravins’ husband Steven, also a doctor, performs the NovaSure procedure three to five times a week on patients either in his office in Forest Hills or at a hospital.

“The procedure is a relatively quick one,” Ravins said. “Including anesthesia, the whole procedure is only five minutes and patients are able to go home that day.”

The 90-second FDA approved outpatient procedure can be done at any time during a woman’s cycle, even during her period, by inserting a slender device through the cervix under local anesthesia with sedation, or general anesthesia. Once in place, radio frequency energy is sent through the uterus cauterizing the endometrium lining – not even a dose of hormones are needed to thin the lining before the procedure.

Ravins’ patients have ranged from age 32 to menopause and have had three or more children. It is important that women who decide to undergo the procedure evaluate their options, since the lining that supports the fertilized egg will be cauterized and childbearing will no longer be possible, he said.

For the 10 million women across the country who suffer from excessive menstrual bleeding, also known as menorrhagia, Ravin said NovaSure is the best alternative to a hysterectomy, a common invasive and risky surgical procedure – that many women undergo each year.

“Surgery is surgery, and the less invasive of an approach that I can take for my patients I will,” Claudia Ravins said.

For more information on NovaSure go to http://www.novasure.com.