partial or full hysterectomy?

Hi my Dr wants to remove my ovaries and tubes through laporascopy being I am taking tamoxifen for breast cancer and it is not working my estrigen counts are in the 800's. Question is should I just have her remove my uterus while shes at it?

She said i would be out of work at the most 3 days, does this sound norm to anyone?

Hi and welcome!

Actually, removing just the ovaries and tubes is called a BSO, or bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy -- it's not a hysterectomy at all. A partial hysterectomy, also called a subtotal hysterectomy, means the uterus is removed all except for the small bit at the entrance, at the top of the vagina, called the cervix.

How does your DR know that the Tamoxifen is not working? Taking Tamoxifen won't lower your estrogen levels; that's not how it works. It just affects how estrogen is able to act on different types of tissue, most importantly so that it has less of an effect on breast tissue. The downside is that at the same time, it increases the effect of estrogen on proliferation of endometrial (uterine lining) tissue. That's why many more women who take Tamoxifen than women who don't take it end up with endometrial cancer.

If you are planning to continue to take Tamoxifen, then at a minimum your DR should be monitoring the thickness of your uterine lining regularly, and it would not be unheard-of to do a prophylactic hysterectomy to minimize your chances of getting uterine cancer because of the Tamoxifen.

However, if you're not going to continue taking it once your ovaries are removed -- and often this is the case, since many women at that point switch from Tamoxifen to Arimidex -- then there'd be no real point to removing a healthy organ "while she's at it", any more than you'd want her to root around in there removing your appendix, gallbladder, etc just because she's in there.

Three days sounds a bit ambitious to me, even for "just" a BSO.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

s,
-Linda

Thank you for the information. That is part of why I get vaginal and pelvic ultrasounds done every 6 months to be sure the lining is not thickening, just in case, but I was thinking being I am taking the tamoxifen and have a higher risk for uterine cancer that I just have her take the uterus out so I won't have to worry about it later on.

IDK I am soo confused and not sure what to do. From what I read from the other posts you are right the 3 days definitely doesn't sound like enough time.

I received my ultrasound results back and it states that I have 2 large simple cyst on my right ovary and 1 on my left. I had laparoscopy about 1.5 years ago due to a hemorraghic cyst.

How do you know and have so much information about this? If you were me what would you do?

PS...
My mom had the same thing happen to her when she was in her early 40's with the cyst and her ovaries and her Dr removed everything, is this common?

Well, unfortunately, I've had a lot of personal experience. I tried to take Tamoxifen after my first breast cancer diagnosis in 2004, but could not tolerate it. I did a lot of research at that time, and again when I was diagnosed in 2006.

I really can't say what I would do if I were you because I'm not. My experience being what it's been, I'd try to keep as many healthy organs as possible, but that's colored by the fact that I have had a lot of other health problems since the hysterectomy. Someone else who hasn't had a difficult time might feel completely differently.

I really can't comment on the cysts on ovaries... I never had any (that I knew of).


-Linda