To Hyst or Not turmoil

Hi y'all. My name is Charity. I am not sure if this is the right place to post this or not. And I dont know if I am looking for advice, or someone's strength and hope via experience, or just people who want to listen to what I am going through who understand cos they have also been through it. I reckon some of all of it.
Without making this too long, here is what is happening. I had my 4th child one and half years ago, which was 2 1/2 months premature. It was a nightmare that turned out good, however I wanted to make sure I wouldn't put my life or another child's at risk, so I had a tubal at 5 weeks post. My life has forever changed since that day. Severe pain/pressure, esp during ovulation, periods that never seem to do anything but get longer and worse. Emotionally a wreck, losing my hair, and skin problems. After ending up at the ER with pain, I had to see my gyn about the problem. Done ultrasounds that showed merely a few cysts and small fibroids. Which made me wonder if I was going crazy. Dr suggested a lapo. Findings were a belly full of endo and webbed ovaries in adhesions. Dr said he cut and burnt away as much as he could. I thought it was over with. Prior to post op appt, I ovulated and same pain. Kept that to myself. Went for followup with dr and instead of him telling me good things, he was telling me how little he could do and what my next options are. He only thinks a complete hyst would work considering the shape of my ovaries.

Well I just feel overwhelmed. I have read really horrible things about the changes after surgery, and yet I have read that women feel 100% brand new and the hormones replacement is working great. I guess I am letting it consume my every thought since my Dr had that talk with me. I needed to get it out with others. Another thing, for some reason, I feel some sort of embaressment or shame. Its strange, what for I dont know. Like I feel like a failure at being a woman to possibly lose my female parts at my age or something.

Thanks for letting me share

Charity I'm so sorry you have to go through this, but the exact same thing has happened to me and I'm having a TAH/BSO on 1-15-02. I will be so glad to get this over with.

My story is a little different. I had a tumor when I was 13 that took my right ovary, party of my left and left me a mess. I have been on hormones since then. When I had my 2nd child 4 yrs ago after 8 years of fertility treatments, I had my tubes tied during a c-sect cuz I almost had a stroke and they didn't want me to risk getting pregnant. They nightmare started all over again. I had very heavy bleeding for 3-4 weeks @ a time and horrible pain. I was also diagnosed (@13) with endo. I'm know in stage 4 and I just had a cyst rupture and got an infection from it.

I know how you feel about not wanting the surgery, I've put it off for years, but I've decided I want to feel better and not have all the pain. It's a hard decision only you can make.

Let me know what you decided or if you want to talk e-mail me.

Alesa

Welcome Charity! I'm sorry you are not feeling well. You have definitely come to the right place for support and lots of love. All of us have been there and in different degrees know what you are going through. You do have alot going on and the decision to have a hysterectomy is a very difficult one. You can always go for a second opinion if you are not comfortable with your doc.

We are not doctors here and I'm certainly not trying to make a diagnosis, but I couldn't help noticing that you said you have heavy, extreme periods, skin problems and that you are losing your hair. Have you ever had your thyroid tested? This is a suggestion only, as the symptoms you have described sound very much like hypothryroidism. I was just diagnosed with this a short time ago and do have some of the same symptoms. I had a hysterectomy for many other reasons though. (see below) This is just a thought and something you may want to ask your doctor about. Some gynecologists don't relate these symptoms to a thyroid disorder so you may want to ask your primary care physician about it and ask him/her to do a thyroid panel on you.
I can see this isn't your only problem, but I wonder if it's part of it? Might be worth looking into. I am including a website here that may interest you regarding this.

http://www.thyroid.about.com/

Sorry you are having so many problems and I know this site will be helpful to you in making your decisions. Keep posting and asking questions. There is a great chat room here also. Let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to e-mail me.

s Sherry