r/hysterectomy

If all goes well, my surgeon will take out everything except my ovaries. I have over-prepared probably to my own detriment, lol! I’m very healthy (sans whatever is causing my awful periods and pain) and extremely physically active so I’m praying my general fitness level helps even a little bit with recovery. Any words of advice or encouragement from those of you who are on the other side? I’m 35, have never had kids, and doc suspects endo and adenomyosis.

Who has had laparoscopic total hysterectomy (removal of uterus, tubes and cervix) due to Fibroids?
I’m scheduled for November 4th. I’m mentally not prepared or at ease about it. Maybe because I have no current pain leading me to feel hopeful of relief from surgery. I only found out of fibroids accidentally when I found out I had a small kidney stone!
I’m terrified of this surgery and having bad pain 🫤 terrified of the cuff!!!
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Once cleared… How was returning to work for you? When did you return to work? How’s sexual life? When did you resume sex?

I was at a cross country event for my son in a camp chair as I’m 2wpo and I didn’t want to push it. I saw a casual acquaintance from my job and after a “well don’t you look comfy” comment I quickly explained I’d had surgery. After she acted very concerned, I explained hysterectomy (figuring it’s fairly routine and most people know someone who’s had one-to put her mind at ease.)

I think the first words were actually, “I tossed a few organs.” To which she replied I believe in keeping all of those. Um, okay, weird…I was just trying to be to be light hearted. Then after explaining hysterectomy she launched into keeping her body in tact as intended and how she’s the only person in her family who has gone through natural menopause. I explained that mine had to go, they weren’t good. She kinda brushed that off. Before I could launch into the “Well they were trying to exit on their own”(prolapse) rebuttal we were interrupted thankfully.

I didn’t know people could feel that strongly about my uterus.

Edit-typos make me crazy

Has anyone had one ovary removed? For those who are a few years post-op, how is everyone doing now?

Any other daily bathers? I love my bath. Surgery 10/13 and I'm already sad thinking about going so long without a bath.

I'm four weeks post op from a hysterectomy where they took everything except the ovaries. Now my surgeon is a pretty just cut and dry guy. He isn't going to ask if you have any questions. He's gonna tell you what he's going to do and that's it. But I didn't know what questions to ask? So maybe this is on me.

I caught a chest cold a few days ago and every time I cough I pee myself a little. Which never happened pre op. One time I even just straight up peed my pants. After looking into it it's pretty common to lose some bladder strength after a hysterectomy but he never mentioned that. I had to look to this subreddit and the internet for all the dos and dont's. If I have to wear pads again because I leak whenever I cough or sneeze I'm gonna be so mad. I had to wear them for two years straight because of my faulty uterus. Now it's gone and there's still liquid coming out of me! I swear I can't win.

Hello, friend is 10dpo after a laparoscopic total hysterectomy with everything out. She was wondering if most of you have experienced feeling of “soreness” in lower abdomen and intermittent pain-like throbs coming from the belly button incision, and heighten awareness of internal pelvic area. Every time she moves positions in bed (guarding with pillow over abdomen), walking slowly, sitting for meals, or while using the bathroom, she feels like pain but more like a feeling of soreness or throbs that eventually leave. On regular Tylenol, regularly scheduled because if she misses dose, then pain lingers longer.

Have any of you experience this? It makes her feel vulnerable and sad at times because she doesn’t know if it’s a sign that she may have pulled something accidentally or unknowingly (ex., during sleep etc).

Please share your experiences. Thank you!

hi everyone. I was waiting to make this post until the infection resolved because I didn't want to scare anyone, I just wanted to share in case this might be helpful to someone post-op.

about 8.5 weeks ago, I had a robotic-assisted laparoscopic total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy (uterus, cervix, and both fallopian tubes removed, kept ovaries). during the surgery they also found/confirmed endometriosis and excised what they could see/get to.

my recovery for the first few weeks went pretty well (no gas pains, abdominal incisions healing well, limited post-op pain, no bleeding, etc). I showered less than 24 hours post-op, had no constipation, had a good appetite, etc. my one week post-op appointment went well, just some bruising around the abdominal incisions that would go away over time. I had to go back to work in-person on day 6 post-op, so I was grateful to be recovering well. I have a sedentary desk job, so my partner drove me to work and picked me up. when I got home I would just shower, eat, and go to bed early. things were going pretty well, and I felt such a drastic reduction in pain from the endometriosis flares I would have before the surgery.

just shy of two weeks post-op, I started feeling really run down. at first I chalked it up to the surgery still being pretty recent, but it felt like I had pretty good energy levels before and then I was going backwards. exactly two weeks post-op, I started a spiking a low fever (100.6-100.9). it went away with Tylenol, so I went to work the next day, but then I spiked a fever at work. I called the on-call doc at my surgeon's office after work and they said to get checked out, so I went to the ER. they did some blood work and I had elevated white blood cells and they did a CT scan to make sure I didn't have an abcess (I didn't). they said my abdominal incisions looked good, so it might be a vaginal cuff infection. they did a vaginal swab (no pelvic exam, just a swab) and said they would do a culture and sent me home with clindamycin (a cream suppository antibiotic). they didn't seem super concerned in the ER, so I went back to work the next day. I did the clindamycin for the 7 days as prescribed, and I felt a little bit better, so I just chalked the remaining fatigue/weakness/discomfort up to being still pretty early in recovery.

the week after I finished the clindamycin, I started feeling even more run down. I'm talking drowsy, like I was going to fall asleep at my desk. I had started to drive myself to work, but around 4 weeks post-op there were two back-to-back days where I drove myself to work and had to call my partner to pick me up at the end of the day because I was too worn out to drive myself home. and my job is not active, I was this worn out from sitting at my computer all day. plus, I was feeling more discomfort. when my bladder was full, it felt like it was pressing on my vaginal cuff, and it would hurt quite a bit internally. I was getting concerned, and then I got low fevers again (100.4-100.9). I was going to call my surgeon's office to see if something was wrong, when a nurse from the ER I had gone to called me. she said that they got my wound culture back, and that it had come back positive for a bacteria that required an IV antibiotic. she said they meant to call earlier, but they got behind on calls and I needed to come back to the ER so I could do the antibiotic as soon as possible. my partner drove me back to the ER that evening and I ended up being admitted. I did two different IV antibiotics, and was diagnosed with vaginal cuff cellulitis and bacteremia. the doctor said this meant that the infection was in my blood but I wasn't septic yet. after I was discharged, I did another week of strong oral antibiotics, went to my doc for a re-check, and then did another two weeks of a different oral antibiotic. I finished the last of my antibiotics a few days ago, and have an appointment next week to make sure I'm good.

I didn't want to share this to scare anyone, I just wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else. I also wanted to emphasize that if you have endometriosis or adenomyosis or really painful periods for any reason, you probably have developed a really high pain tolerance. I was discounting the pain and discomfort I was feeling due to the infection because it was less pain than when I would have during an endometriosis flare. if you are feeling pain and other symptoms (especially a fever, fatigue, weakness, etc), or something doesn't feel right, get checked out. don't only get checked out if you're in so much pain you're going to throw up/pass out/cry etc. that doesn't have to be the threshold, you deserve better than that, and you can have a serious post-op complication with less pain than that. if you feel like something is off, trust yourself and advocate for yourself. you deserve that, and the stakes could be higher than you realize.

the whole experience was really scary, especially considering that if the ER nurse hadn't called me back when she did I might have just kept going to work and getting worse and might have become septic. I'm grateful now to be doing mostly okay. I still have some pain, and I'm trying to be better about resting and taking care of myself, but I'm doing a lot better and I'm recovering much better. if anyone has any questions, let me know and I'll answer what I can, but if you're reading this and you're feeling like something is off, the best thing you can do is call your doctor and get checked out ASAP. this is your sign.

My hysterectomy was the best decision I’ve ever made.

For years I dealt with fibroids, ovarian cysts, and cramps so bad I relied on muscle relaxers, painkillers, and heating pads just to get through it. My sex life suffered too. I finally got tired of living in pain. Not to mention, I had a myomectomy back in 2013.

My surgery went great. My doctor was excellent. She explained everything and made me feel comfortable. I didn’t need painkillers afterward, and my recovery was fast. I only used peptides (Repair Trio) while I healed.

Now I’m pain-free, my sex life is the best it’s ever been, and my husband was supportive through all of it. It changed everything for me. My only regret is not doing it sooner. I just wanted to share my experiences and highlight a great experience with zero issues. Grateful!

I'm 3 days shy of 12 wpo (everything gone except ovaries) and my husband and I decided to try sex. I was cleared for everything at my 6 wpo appointment, but I was too scared.

But this morning we did it! Slowly and a bit hesitantly - I was super nervous but just wanting to get the first time out of the way.

It was a success! No blood, no pain, no cramping! It felt good, but my nervousness prevented any orgasm.

He did tell me that he felt the stitch line at the top of my cuff and that it felt weird and he maybe felt some stitches still in there. But he said other than that, everything felt the same, no shortened vaginal canal or anything.

For me, it felt pretty much the same, other than me being tense and nervous. I'm feeling that once I get further along in the healing journey, enough to let go, it'll be back to normal.

Hey y’all, so I am a full-time self-employed house cleaner. I’m scheduled to have my hysterectomy to remove a uterus full of cancer in February. I keep seeing recovery times being 6 to 8 weeks, but with me being so physical with my job I need to hear experiences from other people it’s similar lines of work with what to expect. I’m getting a laparoscopic robotic hysterectomy, and though I told my doctor what I do for a living she’s still giving me the 6 to 8 weeks time span to estimate. I need to save up enough money to be out of work for however long it’s gonna take me to heal. Would love to know what some of y’all experienced so I can expect a more realistic idea and squirrel away more money if needed. Thanks in advance!

I’m 16 dpo and feeling decent. Finally stopped all pain meds except when needed and mostly just feel pain when I’m overdoing it. We had a visit to my son in college which necessitated eating out and sitting in chairs/booths. Sitting up straight is still a problem, and I guess I wasn’t surprised. But I return to work in a week and am curious how long it’ll persist. I did buy a lumbar cushion to help with my desk chair and can cut hours as needed.

5wpo here and this is not something that I would have considered during recovery.

I went to my best friend's son's first birthday today and was unable to help with set up at all. Someone mentioned blowing up balloons, and I immediately jumped on it because how easy is that? I just have to sit there and blow out real hard. As soon as I started blowing the first balloon up, I realized that my entire core was engaged and I was straining in order to forcefully blow up a feakin' balloon. Needless to say, I immediately stopped at that balloon and passed the job off to someone else. Unfortunately, I'm still spotting tonight. 😅

Has anyone else encountered an "easy" task that unexpectedly ended up being an issue?

did something very very stupid and now worrying my brains out!

well to narrate here in short: just before bed time i wanted to scroll aimlessly and while laying on my back, put the mac on my folded thighs. usually i support it with my hands but somehow it slipped and fell on my tummy. edge of the laptop hit the part just below navel. i could feel mild impact and went to sleep. but since morning i could feel heaviness and tightness around that area. no pain. by evening could feel definite pain along with the swelling and tightness. pain is not significant but its there. i am hoping its temporary impact and will subside on its own. but part of me is very very worried about possible incisional hernia and been checking my tummy for bulges every other hour. does hernia come with symptoms? how long before the bulge shows up? i am terrified.

It's oozy and smells weird. I just had surgery on the 23rd of September.

September 16, I had a total hysterectomy. Everything except one ovary. I had endometriosis in my pelvic area according to my doctor. It was called a frozen pelvis. My left ovary had an endometrioma, the size of an egg, my right ovary was fused to my rectum with endometriosis and my cervix had stage three carcinoma. I know that there was a lot of work done in my pelvic area, but 18 days out from surgery, I’m still having a hard time taking a poop. It hurts so bad I’ve been taking stool softeners. I take Miralax every day. Everything to combat constipation. And it’s not that I’m constipated. It’s more so it just really, really hurts to poop. I brought it up to my doctor at my two week postop appointment and he said it’s normal because my bowels go right over top of my vaginal cuff. He said there’s probably still a lot of swelling in my pelvic area as well. I’m just hoping for insight from someone who’s had something similar and can tell me if this is what they felt and when did it get better and what can I do to make it better?