Wondering if I made the right choice

New to the "sisters" site. Really love the showing of support that I see here.

Just scheduled my hysterectomy for Feb. 21, 2012. Left the office not sure if I was doing the right thing.

My case isn't the most severe, I"m sure. My periods happen pretty "regular" but the first two days are very painful and heavy. I occasionally have SEVERE cramping, but it's random.

Back in April my first doctor attempted a biopsy in her office with nothing for anxiety or pain. I proceeded to faint laying right there on her table. My family doctor recommended me to never go back there and found me a wonderful doctor to proceed with. I had a hysteroscopy and D & C a few weeks ago. Nothing was found that wasn't already known.

I do have multiple fibroids, one is very large and is grown to be close to my navel area. Dr. says I am about the size of an 18 week fetus. Since we have three teens, we don't plan to have more. I am 44 years old.

Dr. is not recommended myomectomy because of the number of fibroids and those which could continue to grow if she only takes the larger ones.

My biggest thought right now is "did I overreact to all the heavy bleeding and pain". Probably just emotions and realizing the "finality" of this decision.

Obviously only you can come to peace with whatever you decide but let me say that I am 45, wasn't expecting to have any more kids( I have 5 between 20 and 4) and had a similar situation. My uterus was 15 weeks size and I had heavy bleeding and long periods. None of the huge drama some posters have but definitely effecting my life in a big way. Same reasons ablation and myomectomy were not recommended for me. After some wrestling with myself, I was at peace with the hysterectomy because I felt anything else was only delaying the inevitable, and after all what was I delaying for? to experience another year or 2 of planning my life around my period? of hoping the tumors didn't double again in size? I decided it was best for me to go for it while I was in great health otherwise and get it over with. I am 5 days past my surgery and don't regret it at all. I am looking forward to even better health and going back to my active busy life. I hope you can look within yourself and find the roots of your feelings, make a good a decision and be at peace.

Hello! I am 3 months post op, and some of my symptoms match some of yours.

I also had severe bleeding the first day or two of my periods and quite a bit of cramping during those days. This was a few years ago, and it stayed the same for quite some time. About a year ago, the heavy period days went from about 36 hours to three days. The next month it was four days. Then seven. By March, I was bleeding heavy for about a week and normal for a few more days, making my periods about 10 days long. The heavy bleeding was to the point where I needed to set my alarm every 1 1/2 hours during the night so I could change pads and tampons. Doing that for a week really makes you crabby!

My doctor gave me some progesterone medicine to take for a 10-day period starting the first of the month and he said it would make it less painful and not so heavy. The first month I took the pills, it was worse. I bled for 17 days, 14 of them heavy, needing to wake up multiple times during the night.

He performed a biopsy in the office, but I didn't pass out like you did. I was ok, had some slight cramping later that day. Another month of heavy bleeding and he performed a D&C. Found fibroids and he wanted to do a myomectomy. I'm 47 and done having children, and really wanted a FINAL solution. I had heard a number of unsuccessful myomectomy stories, and I didn't want to be one of them. He said I was not a candidate for hysterectomy. I got a second opinion.

My new doctor said I was a perfect candidate for a hysterectomy and I asked him if he could do it. He said yes. I had another two months wait, not as long as yours, but I was counting down the days! I had two more very heavy and long periods and then my surgery. I was a complete success story, no complications, no after surgery issues, no pain.

I can't tell you if you are over reacting to this or not, but I can tell you that I am so pleased with the outcome of my surgery. I never knew how much pain I was really in until I wasn't in pain any more! I am looking forward to going on vacation next summer. Haven't been excited like that in a long time. I know I won't need to bring a box of pads and tampons with me for Christmas day!

If you do decide to go ahead with the surgery, I wish you the best. I certainly recommend following your doctors orders to the letter, as it seems that makes a big difference. No lifting or bending until he says it's ok, things like that.

I hope my story helps you!

My story is similar to yours. A few years ago I started noticing that I could feel a large mass in my abdomen starting at my navel and going down the left side of my abdomen. My family doctor did a pelvic exam and several palpitations of my abdomen and never felt anything. I even asked to have a colonoscopy last year because I feared it was colon cancer.

I went to a new gyn last month and she immediately felt the mass upon palpitating. She could feel that my uterus was very large. Ultrasound revealed a number of large fibroids. She said my uterus is 5 times its normal size.

We discussed the options - waiting it out until menopause (I'm 49), Lupron, etc. None of them will 'cure' large fibroids. Will merely shrink them. The problem with having fibroids when you reach menopause is that you are likely to get irregular bleeding and it can be difficult to ascertain if the bleeding is from the fibroids or cancer.

Anyway, I don't have major heavy bleeding though my periods have definitely gotten heavier over the last year and I have spotting between periods. The reason I am having the hysterectomy is I can feel the mass of fibroids. They feel heavy in my abdomen, like I'm 5 months pregnant. I also have backaches and am tired all the time.

When I discussed the options with my doctor I immediately 'knew' that the hysterectomy is the right choice for me. I had a myomectomy 10 years ago when doing fertility treatments. It's a good option if you want to get pregnant again or if the fibroids are very small but the recovery wasn't the easiest and I'm way past the point of having more children.

Since your surgery isn't until Feb. take your time, research it (but don't let the stories you read on the internet scare you - the majority of women out there are really glad they did it. I looked at medical studies of patient satisfaction and it is generally very high.) Get a second opinion. Take a list of questions to your doctor and talk through it with her. I think you want to go into surgery confident this is the right decision for you. It will make a lot of difference in how you feel afterwards. Fibroids aren't generally an emergency situation, so you can always delay the surgery until you feel more sure. Good luck.