How long will surgical menopause last?

It's been three months post op for me since I had my hysterectomy. In the beginning after the surgery it was like my body was turned inside out. I had a few hot flashes in the hospital, but the worst of it was when I came home from the hospital. I was on an emotional roller coaster. I'd feel up and then down. My moods were awful. I would snap at anyone that would talk to me. Sleeping was impossible. All I did was toss and turn and then get up in the morning all tired out. I was also anemic so that didn't help. Now that I'm 12 weeks out, my chief complaints are hot flashes and night sweats, and insomnia. I'd give anything for a good night's sleep. I just came home from my primary care dr. and he suggested Black Cohosh. Or rather Remifemin. That is what my dr. recommended. But if it causes liver damage, I don't want to take it. Hot flashes are bad enough, but I haven't been able to sleep through the night ever since I had the surgery. Even in the hospital I was up all night. I'd just like to have one good night's sleep with no dreams. Just peace. I was told the menopause symptoms would go away eventually, but of course the drs. have no way of knowing how long that will be. I guess I'm just going to have to wait it out. It is nice not having a period, but I didn't know I'd feel like this afterwards. The drs. told me that when you are in your 40's-I'm 45-you have a greater chance of strokes when on HRT. So, time will tell. I hate to think of the winter coming and having to turn up the heat. I'm going to be roasting. Maybe I'll spend most of my time outdoors.

Oh, by the way, I live in the USA but my little 4 year old nephews love the Wiggles. He has every DVD they made and I know all the songs by heart. I know they were doing another tour in the US, but it wasn't close enough for us to go. I'm hoping in the future that we can go to a Wiggles concert. I was sorry to hear about Greg Page being ill. I always liked Greg and it's hard to get used to his replacement.

I had my TAH/BSO about 18 months ago. My doctor suggested that I wait until I had hot flashes or other symptoms before I started on hormones. Well, I'm still waiting! I AM warmer than before the TAH, but I wouldn't say I get hot flashes. I was 45 when I had the surgery, with no symptoms of menopause prior.

I know that my symptoms are probably not normal, but I'm just writing to say that not everyone experiences the menopause symptoms.

I recently started to take vagifem about once a week to help with vaginal dryness.

Well I thought I was in this all by myself. My husband and I live in our RV in very remote areas. We have no medical insurance and no money for doctors. I had weaned myself off the BP meds but my BP skyrocketed six months after my surgery. Luckily I had that medicine with us. It never occurred to me that it was the surgery that caused it.

FYI I am 54 yrs old and 2 yrs post TAH/BSO. I cannot go to sleep. I'm hot/cold all the time and if someone looks at me cross-eyed I'll snap their head off! I'm in a puddle of tears one minute and so dizzy I could ruff the next. I'm depressed too and suffering from stomach upset. I thought I was just fine until the last few months when all of this came on.

We are going to have to move closer to civilization and find a compound pharmacist who can put some hormones together for me.

I've had some success with fresh ginger to keep the stomach calm. I've been poping antidepresents like they were M&M's but after reading this entire thing I'm going to try something else.

It seems we cannot afford to place our care in the hands of people who have butter-fingers. Time to educate on the natural remedies.

If I knew then what I know now I would have kept wearing the depends 3 out of 4 weeks every month and forgotten the Hystercraptomy. Why can't they just use plain english and tell us that the results of the surgery are NO sex drive and our vaginal area will shrink so that sex will HURT a whole lot.

Wintersnow,
I understand where you are coming from. Before my surgery I was told that I could take HRT afterwards. I am 45 and was having regular periods before the surgery, but I had endometriosis and fibroids that was making me extremely anemic. I really had no choice about the surgery. My blood was so low, even with taking iron, that I had no choice. After the surgery the surgeon came in my hospital room and asked me if I wanted to start on HRT. I told her I would wait until I saw how I felt. The first 7 weeks were fine. Not great, because of the pain when I was recovering and I had insomnia, but not really bad. Well, when I felt like I needed the HRT I made an appt. with another dr. My doctor had left the practice by then. I was going to a clinic. I saw another dr. and she said it wasn't a good idea because of strokes and would not prescribe any HRT for me. But I did have her talk with the other surgeon that did my surgery. Meanwhile I got a 2nd opinion from another dr. that I had gone to before and he didn't recommend HRT either. I do have high blood pressure and other problems. In the beginning he also told me I could take HRT. Then he said no. Well, then I heard back from the original surgeon and she said that I could take HRT. But now I'm so used to being off of it, that I haven't really persued it again. I do have hot flashes, difficulty sleeping and night sweats, but it's not as bad as I thought. I should have started the HRT when I was offered it in the hospital. That was on April 23rd. Now I just take one day at a time. There does come a point when things will settle down, or are not so bad. My worst problem is sleeping. I haven't slept through the night since the surgery. All I do is toss and turn. They say black cohosh helps. You might want to check it out with your dr. In 2 weeks it will be 4 months since I had my surgery with no HRT. Maybe in the future I will try again, but then they say once you get off it you have to go through menoopause all over again. I don't know how true that is. I still tire easily. And yes, I could feel a heck of a lot better with HRT, but right now I'm used to not taking HRT. I just have to go by the symptoms that I have. I wish you good luck.