down to wire..to keep OR not to keep..advice!!

Well I am off and running on this "wonderful" prep. I find myself all full of emotioin and fear and excitied, Im just not really sure what I feel from moment to moment.

I report to the castle tomorrow morning at 8:30 with surgery scheduled at 10:30. I am still up in the air as to wether or not to keep my ovaries. The doctor has said it was up to me, although Im finding it hard to make a choice and come tomorrow morning I need to tell her something!

A bit of background about me might help my sisters here in given me advice!?

I am 30 years old.Have had painful visits from aunt flo for years now which got much worse after my c-section in 2001.
At the birth of my daughter my Dr said I had some fibroids that will need attention in the future however she wasnt prepared to deal with them then and was hoping it had something to do with the pregnancy. Fast forward a bit through the years of pain cramps heavy heavy bleeding clots that were large sometimes down right huge, long visits from aunt alo , weak sick at stomache just not doing good to 2005 when sharp sharp pain took me to the er, they thought maybe colon and cat scan with dye came back fine said it was diverticulitis and sent me home. Continued that way in pain off and on crazy aunt flo visits the whole thing till may of 06 at which time I had a colonoscopy to figure out the pain. Well it too came back normal so was sent for mri which showed a "mass" on the left side in subcutaneous tissue layer and suggested that it be malignant. Went in July 06 removed it and pathology report came back endometrial implant, well Dec of 06 went to obgyn complaint pain! in my left side, above my pubic bone even sometimes on the right side with aunt flo it became worse much worse, I at this time had little to no sex drive, felt I was abnormal or something since everythign had checked out fine with the exception of removing that mass. I asked him If I had endo and what could I do to get back some sort of life? His suggestion was NOVA SURE uterine ablation, said no to the endo question and sex drive was due to me in pain, long visits from aunt flo, blood loss etc the nova sure would fix all that and I wouldnt have any visits any longer! Great I said sign me up!.. Well nearly a year later still having same issue minus my heavy flo, still cramping still in pain still have visits but not near as strong however it use to be a solid time now its on a day, off 2, on 3, off 6 hours just NO rhyme or reason to it at all! So I go to new family dr thinking the one im seeing is a QUACK! See her first visit tell her everything the bc pills the uterine ablation the normal colonoscopy the endo implant the sex drive the gained weight I mean I laid it all out there. She said to me go to this DR she has expirence in this type of stuff. I wouldnt know what to do for you except for all that has been tried already and obviously didnt work. Advised me it could take 6 weeks to get into her cause shes busy and very good (hence the 6 week wait) well it took 3 weeks to get into her the "fit " me in.... go to her hand the reports to her nurse Dr comes in later after reading and I told her everything and in tears I asked her can you help me or not ? If not point me to someone who can PLEASE! She came back and said these words" hun you have endo and maybe some scar tissue" I said well the obgyn before you she stopped me and said" obviously didnt read your records"... oh I was so mad! To try to cut this down by the end of appt (2 hours with her in room I WAS SHOCKED at the time she spent with me) she thought they only way to deal with it was for tah and she also told me my mri back in 06 showed cysts on both ovaries but not large at that time... and I guess at one point in the search for relief I had an untrasound and it showed cysts on my cervix, hmm didnt know that before this appt! I asked about ovaries she said shed like to keep them but it was up to me (hence family history colon cancer breast cancer), but would understand whatever choice I made.
Which leads me to the question do I have her take the ovaries too Or keep them with me?I am so confused! What would some of you girls do? I know you cant make a decesion for me but advice is GREATLY needed here. I am concerned about menopause at my age, concerned about sex to be honest, will I get this back?What about the heart dieseas?
I am soo sorry this is so long However to get a better feel of what has lead up to this point I felt I should give you girls full background.
Please note from the time of her appointment to the day of surgery only 9 days will have passed!?!?! Surgery tomorrow and I need help! Thanks in advance for any and all!

One interesting thing is that my doctor told me that recent studies showed that removing the uterus and keeping the ovaries actually cut down ovarian cancer rates. I don't have any cites for this, but IMO, if they are in good shape and you're 30, I'd keep them.

I'm dealing with the same "Do I or don't I?" because of hormonal migraines, but I'm also almost 46 so quite a bit older. Again, this is just a chick on the internet's opinion, but you can always get them out later if your problems don't subside.

Best of luck with whatever you decide and I'm glad you found a good doctor!!

Thank you for your advice. It appears that I have found a good Dr finnally!
I didnt know that about the recent studies, I too find this interesting! I too wish you the best of luck in what you decide, although I have to say this isnt one of the easier decesions to make!

I too grappled with the ovary problem up to the last minute. I really did not look forward to dealing with instant menopause and major surgery at the same time. At the end, when the doctor approached me with papers to sign before surgery, I had made a decision i felt comfortable with. I told him that if the ovaries looked healthy to him,keep them - if they looked diseased or problmatic, I would leave thedecision to him. i still have my ovaries, andhave no hormonal problems. Your doctor sounds very competent. The only question I would have is if you do have endo, can it attack the ovaries after having the hysterectomy? And, what are the chances of that happening? You are very young to lose your ovaries unecessarily. Look forward to a much happier and pain free life - it is well worth the temporary discomfort. Best of luck to you!

First I want to wish you good luck tomorrow..morningdew...the day has finally come for you and you will be so happy when all the anxiety is behind you....as far as the ovaries...I signed a consent form stating if they were healthy than I would keep them..no family history....she was thinking she was going to take out the left one as ultrasound showed a cluster of cysts...turns out there was nothing on the left one and she had to drain a very small one from the right....each patient is different and you have to do what is right for you.....if no family history and seeing that you are still young, as long as the doc is not telling you that they advise removal, if it were I, I would probably want to keep them...good luck and let us know what you decide....I can't wait to see you in post-op

Most importantly, good luck tomorrow. You will be in our thoughts and we will be there with you in spirit holding your hand. Secondly. I am having my hyster surgery next month on the 14th. My ob/gyn and I talked about wether or not to keep or not to keep my ovaries. Well, I have decided that I am going to keep my ovaries even though I have had problems in the past with cysts. The ultrasound showed that my ovaries are in pretty good shape and she did not think that they needed to be removed. Since I am perimenopausal now she suggested that it would be better to let them do their job while I went through the change and later could have them removed when I was done with the change. If they are in good shape I would keep them that way you don't have the side effect/worries of HRT.

When I was first talking to the doctor -- she said the desicion would be left up to me -- we talked the pros and cons

when I went in for the pre-op she asked if I had decided -- decided if they looked ok leave them if not take them out -- but further into the discion -- she said something -- ( I forget now ) -- so I asked her -- if you were sitting on this table with the history that I have and you were told to make this desicion -- WHAT WOULD YOU DO? -- her answer was remove everything.

If your doctor can put them selves in your shoes -- with your history and honestly answer that question -- then that is your answer.

I do not let me doctors sit on a fence -- I make them give me the answer that is best for me in that situation.

Maybe someone with differant problems -- she could honestly answer a differant way --
But I think any dr worth their weight in gold -- will put themselves int hat situation and honestly answer.

but that is my 2 cents worth.


If you can not decide
Maybe before you get your medication tomorrow morning you can ask your doctor that question --

Best wishes --
see you on the other side soon.

Thanks so much girls I am ever so thankful to have all of your support.
Well I talked to the Dr just a bit on the phone and she said she would really rather keep my ovaries providing there is no issue with them. I asked her about estrogen feeding the endo and she said yes Its a possibility I wont see a small spot of endo and in time it could grow back at which time they could go in there laporscopicly and remove any new endo and both ovaries. But man oh man it kinda seems like to me that would be a 2 step surgery for the same darn problem!?...what do you girls think?! but then again if it took 10 years for it to grow to a bother some point then I have had use of my ovaries for 10 more years. As far as family history she said thats where it becomes a different situation there are no guarntees I will have all the problems family has had HOWEVER no guarntes I wont neither! She did say that she has yet to get my lab work back in regards to my blod clotting and without that she can not tell me if I would be able to take horomones or not. Test hasnt came back yet... wonderful....As far as my cervix because I have had ab normal pap smears she said really theres no way she would leave it behind, for obvious reasons. She did say that she has done other tah/bso on women my age and slightly older who havent even had the need for hormones but with that being said its 50 one way to 50 the other, ya never know which you will fall into until your there. I worry about the bladder at 30 I dont want to pee on myself but then again I dont imagine women who are older then I really want to either. So when I asked her about a bladder thing for support she said unless theres a reason she wont be doing it, so now Im praying I dont ever have to deal with that even though I know at some point It may become an issue. The issue with my mammogram she didnt seem too concerned about at this point however if something changes with the "spot" after next mammogram then she will refer over to general surgeon for biopsy. the thought of even remotely having to go through another surgery big or small in 6 months after this one seems daunting. I have heard that ovairan cancer is one of the hardest cancer to catch in a timely manner(early) is this true anyone have expirence with this statement to make it true or false? I have come to the conclusion either way you go you could be dealing with something you dont want to deal with wether it be menopause and all its glory or surgery again and all its glory.

I think I will tell her that if they are in good shape no problems no endo no cysts then Ill keep them HOWEVER if they look at all funny get them suckers out of there and I will have to take my chances on the other side. This is the only way I know to be fair about it to myself so that either way I wouldnt be mad at the choice I made and wished I would have made the other in reality I leave it to my body to make the choice and the expertise of the Dr doing it. I sure dont want them to wake me up in middle of it and say yeah they look great or no not so good I will just have to trust the Dr and my body. I did ask her today that if there was anything that didnt look right on them would she take them (already knowing her prefernce) and not let my age be a contributing factor? She told me she would. Dont want her thinking to be leave em in and shell be back not into repeat buisness with surgeons ya know. So with lots of prayers and family support whatever gets taken out and whatever stays life goes on and you deal with the next thing as it comes along.
I thank you guys for your input what great site with great people on here.

morningdew, I think you have thought this out carefully, and your doctor sounds great. I was ambivalent about the cervix but my doctor felt it is better to remove it. Apparently, if there is ever a problem later, it is much more difficult to remove the cervix alone. Also, with cervix removed there is no chance of getting uterine or cervical cancer. I was worried about the bladder having less support, but have had absolutely no problems with leakage or anything and i am much older than you. You will feel sooo much better after the initial recovery period - we are all rooting for you!