"The worst service I’ve ever received"

I had a coil fitted in the sexual health clinic late last year, and have had non stop issues with it. Bleeding heavily, cramps, pain with bowel movements, back pain and very bloody stools. I was told to persevere and it would get better. I also have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) for reference.

Anyway, it wasn’t improving so I called my GP and she couldn’t feel the strings to my coil and saw I was in extreme pain so then referred me to the gynaecology assessment unit in Ninewells.

While I was there staff were extremely abrupt. One staff member would not even look me in the eye and sighed every time I asked a question. The nurses station is a distance from the waiting room and I could hear the same staff member talking about me saying by name that I am dramatic and  wasting their time.

I already felt very uncomfortable and unwelcomed there and this made it worse. I don’t like confrontation so I didn’t say anything. 2 hours passed and I asked if there was any update on what was happening and was told that I have to wait, this is for emergencies and that I'm fine. I did not feel fine, I went to the patient bathroom and cried, I felt so dismissed and like a burden to the staff in the gynae assessment unit.

Another 40 minutes pass and a doctor takes me into a treatment room. They did not seem interested in anything I had to say and was brushing me off with very fast responses. I was told to lay on a bed where they had a feel for my coil strings, the previous staff member was in the room, and within a few seconds said they had found the strings and that was it, clothes on,  good to go. I asked questions about the pain, the bleeding, the bowel movements and was told they were unrelated so off I went, no further forward but at least my IUD was in place, right? 

No. The pain got worse, my partner called NHS 24 the same evening and I was sent to the out of hours doctor, who then suggested he refer me back to Ninewells gynaecology, I declined based on the experience I had earlier that day, I was scared to go back, I didn’t want to be treated like that again, I live in between Dundee and Fife so he sent me to the next closest hospital which was Fife, I arrived there and had the same check done, except no strings were felt, like my GP, then a scan of my uterus, no IUD, then an x ray. My coil was in my abdomen with one hook inside of my bowel and the rest hanging down. They told me it was well embedded and likely had been there for a while, I had to have surgery the next morning to remove it and I felt so much relief. 

The gynaecology team in Ninewells disregarded me and made me feel so rubbish that I not only cried in the patient bathrooms in the assessment unit but I refused to return to their service despite the level of pain I was in. The doctor who had apparently found my strings, was obviously not feeling what they thought, because there were no strings to feel. The coil was no where near my cervix and had not been for a while. I can't recommend gynaecology in Ninewells as that was the worst service I have ever received. I found that one particular staff members behaviour and attitude towards me was disgusting and unacceptable and the entire visit was the worst service I’ve ever received.