WOMENS-HEALTH Messages for December, 2002: Re: Impact of hysterectomy on your life

Re: Impact of hysterectomy on your life

From: Abby (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Mon, 2 Dec 2002 10:29:00 -0600 (CST)

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At Mon, 2 Dec 2002, anonymous@obgyn.net wrote: >
>Thank you for the replies I received regarding my question about whether
>to have a hysterectomy because of possible kidney damage. My biggest
>concern about the hysterectomy is what impact/consequences it will have
>on my life. How important are the uterus and ovaries in peri and
>post-menopausal women? There is information on the web that says they
>are important even in later stages of life. However, I have almost
>never seen any postings by women who have had hysterectomies saying that
>they regret the hysterectomy. I wonder if the main
>difference between having regrets and not having them is whether or not
>you have
>strong symptoms with a very negative impact on your life prior to the
>surgery.
>Are there other women with either no or light symptoms who get
>hysterectomies and later regret the decision? Or is the impact of a
>hysterectomy on a women's life usually less dramatic than I am
>imagining?

One website you might want to check is hystersisters.com- a site created by those who have had the surgery for women who have had or are contemplating surgery. You will find some women there who experienced complications from hysterectomy, but any type of surgery can involve risk.

You do not need a uterus after your childbearing years are complete. You really need to be careful of what you read on the internet and need to consider who wrote the information. There is one doctor on the internet (not a GYN) who writes against hysterectomy, but when I pinned him down on the facts during a phone call he backed down from his rhetoric. Most women experience a vastly improved quality of life after this surgery . Removal of ovaries is NOT hysterectomy- that's called oophorectomy. It's an individual decision to keep your ovaries and it depends on age and your medical history. I was several years away from expected menopause, never had any ovarian cysts, and perceived my risk for ovarian cancer to be low, so I kept mine.

If you are facing potential kidney damage, I would seriously consider having surgery, and would do it if I were you.

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