Here are 10
things your doctor may skip, but that you need to know.
1. Your Sex Life Isn’t Over
While the surgery can have lasting effects on your body, and you’ll need
time to heal, this does not mean that you’ll never have sex again. How
soon you can have sex after a hysterectomy really depends on the type of
hysterectomy: partial, total, or radical. Waiting two to four weeks to
get back to sex is generally okay, with your doctor’s go-ahead, if your
cervix was not removed along with your uterus, says Lauren Streicher, MD,
an Everyday Health columnist, an associate clinical professor of
obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University in Chicago, and the
author of Sex Rx: Hormones, Health, and Your Best Sex Ever. But if your cervix was removed, it takes about six weeks for the back of the vagina to heal.
2. Hysterectomy Is Never a Cure for Endometriosis
“Not a day goes by in which I don’t wish, with every fiber of my being, that
my doctor had stressed to me the vital fact that having a hysterectomy is
absolutely
not a cure for endometriosis,” says Rachel Cohen, 33, of
Woodmere, New York, about her total hysterectomy.
3. You Won’t Necessarily Go Into Menopause
“I expected to have crazy hot flashes, mood swings, and night sweats all the
time, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I barely had any of those
symptoms,” Cohen says about her experience after hysterectomy.
4. Hysterectomy May Include Your Ovaries
During surgery, your doctor may remove one or both ovaries and your
fallopian tubes, as well as your uterus. Ovaries are the source of the female
hormones estrogen
and progesterone.
These are critical for both sexual health and bone health. Losing both ovaries
means these hormones are also lost abruptly, a condition known as surgical
menopause. This sudden loss of female hormones can cause stronger symptoms of
menopause, including hot flashes and loss of sex drive.
5. Hormone Therapy Could Help With Physical Changes After Surgery
If you have a hysterectomy that removes your ovaries, then you should talk
about the pros and cons of estrogen
therapy with your doctor, Streicher says. After the ovaries are removed,
estrogen therapy can help relieve uncomfortable symptoms of menopause. However,
oral hormone therapy carries increased risks of stroke, blood clots
like deep
vein thrombosis, and heart
disease, which you should also discuss with your doctor.
6. You May Be Able to Avoid a Hysterectomy
Depending on the condition you are facing, you may be able to keep your
uterus intact. Alternatives are out there for about 90 percent of
hysterectomies surgeons do, according to Streicher in her book
The Essential
Guide to Hysterectomy. Fibroids, for example, may be treated using a
nonsurgical procedure called uterine artery embolization that cuts off the
fibroids' blood supply. Another option is myomectomy, which removes fibroids
but spares the uterus.
7. Less-Invasive Surgery May Be the Right Option for You
Ask your doctor about minimally invasive surgery, also called laparoscopic
or robotic-assisted hysterectomy. This newer type of surgery requires general
anesthesia but only uses tiny incisions, causes less blood loss, and comes with
shorter hospital stays.
8. The Morcellation Technique Has Both Advantages and Risks
To be able to remove the uterus during a minimally invasive surgery,
surgeons cut it into small sections and may use a process called morcellation.
In the past, the
practice was criticized because of evidence that it could potentially
increase the risk of spreading cancerous cells.
9. Hysterectomy May Prevent Certain Types of Cancer
For women who have BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene defects, the risk of developing
ovarian cancer are much higher, according to the National
Cancer Institute. Only about 1 percent of women in the general population
will develop ovarian cancer over their lifetime compared with about 44 percent
of women who have inherited the BRCA1
mutation and about 17 percent of women who have inherited the BRCA2
mutation.
10. Psychological Healing After Hysterectomy Can Take Time
For some, the emotional trauma of hysterectomy
may take much longer to heal than the physical effects. Feeling a little down
or having a sense of loss after a surgery is normal. But be on the lookout for
postoperative depression,
and get professional help if you need it to deal with insomnia, loss of
appetite, or hopeless feelings, if you have them
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