Uterine prolapse with rectocele and cystocele

I thought hormones were protective against heart disease, which is why women have a much less risk of heart disease before menopause, but after menopause it rises up to the level of men. I was thinking HRT was to be avoided when there is a history of breast or ovarian cancer. My 81-yo mother has taken HRT for 35 yrs, has no heart disease of any kind, and has long outlived her own mother who died of a heart attack. I'll have to check into all that, maybe I'm confused about the risk of HRT.

Hi Analisa14, I also read somewhere that the uterus does keep on releasing a little bit of hormones over the years after menopause. I too, don't want to lose my uterus. People say "just get rid of it" like it was just a fingernail. It's an organ I want to keep, unless I have cancer. I'm going to an oncologist this thursday, first visit, and will see what she has to say about getting a biopsy. I have necrosis and inflammation with an ulcer on my cervix.

I had my uterus removed due to the fact it was prolapsed as well as my bladder and rectum and my dr and I both believed it would be better to remove it all at once (I kept my ovaries). The less pressure of things falling the better I thought. I was 43. I have no regrets but this is a very personal decision and you are right to research and ask, ask, ask so that you are comfortable with what you decide.

thank you Betty for your support.

Wordwizard I had my surgery the day after you. I also am feeling very sore and can't imagine letting my husband or anything back in there anytime soon....

Had absolutely no problem saying goodbye to my uterus, I am 44.

Happy healing everyone,
Fiona.

Did you ever think it might be easier for your doctor to fix your prolapses without your uterus in the way? Maybe it has nothing to do with you, but with your doctor wanting an easier surgery for himself.

I got the feeling that taking the uterus out was to make sure that the repairs were more "thoroughly" accomplished, as in the best repair that could be. Not so much just for the doctor's convenience. In my case, on initial exam they thought I just had a cystocele and a rectocele, but we decided to take the uterus to make the repairs better. They didn't feel my uterus was prolapsed at all. What it turned out to be was a bad rectocele and a very prolapsed uterus that had pushed my bladder down making it appear that I had a cystocele. The bladder was holding the very prolapsed uterus up, covering up the fact that the uterus was really what was prolapsed. So in my case I'm glad I decided and consented to the hysterectomy, as it was my main problem aside from the rectocele.

Well thats good you feel you got the best of care and did the right thing for you. But sometimes I feel that doctors are just trying to make it easier for them and not the patient. I'm very scared of getting my uterus out and my doctor won't do my rectocele and cystocele without doing a hysterectomy. I'm 55 years old, but don't want worse post menopause symptoms after hysterectomy and my one last ovary out too. I don't know what to do at this point. Maybe I'll just wait until next year because it's not to bad now. What do you think. thanking you in advance.

I just didn't personally have any attachment to my uterus, however, we are all different in our feelings and reasons for our feelings. If I were 55, for me, I wouldn't be concerned about losing my one last ovary as it can't be contributing too much in the way of hormones anymore. My mother left one ovary in her early 40s and by 49 had a precancerous lesion on her ovary that gave us a real scare. She had that removed, went on HRT, never suffered from hot flashes or lack of sex drive, and felt like a million bucks from there on. She is now nearly 82 years old and still taking her HRT without a problem. I just turned 49 and my doctor left my ovaries as I am apparently not close to menopause, they're healthy, and I don't have any family history of cancer. Could you ask them to leave your ovary and just take the uterus and do the repairs? Or is losing your uterus also scary for you. Granted it's less than 3 weeks out, but I don't feel any different at all without my uterus. Couldn't feel it there before, can't feel that it's gone now. You can probably find a doctor who will do the repairs without doing a hysterectomy, and that might be an option for you if you feel strongly about keeping it. In my case, it was a big part of the problem and I'm completely at peace with having it gone. Makes HRT easy too as you don't have to stop the estrogen and "bleed" each month like you have to do if you have a uterus. I would never want to put up with that into my old age, not on a bet.

Wordwizard, thanks for all the good advice. I'm going for my 3rd cervical biopsy the end of July. The oncologist says my 1cm lesion is probably nothing, but she still wants to do a biopsy. The other biopies from other doctors were not complete, they couldn't get enough tissue to biopsy, it kept falling apart my GYN said. So now I'm going to an oncologist and hopefully she will know more about this. I went to see her for the first time last week, and I didn't really like her much. She was not very sensitive to me and my emotions. I told her this will be my 3rd biopsy in less then 8 weeks, and she said "well this is my first". She acted like I shouldn't even be there because she had other more important real cancer cases to see. I think doctors really don't care about people and just want the money fast. They should learn better personal human care and not just the medical aspect of medicine. Treat the whole person, physically and mentally. I'm a wreck these days, not knowing if I have cancer or precancer and I still have to deal with all my prolapses too. My daughter gets married in 7 weeks also, and I'm busy with all of that. Sometimes I don't even want to get out of bed.