No Date: What will I be like in 20 or 30 years?

I can buy that I'll be okay in the first 5 to 10 years after having a hysterectomy. [I have an appointment on Friday to schedule a DaVinci hysterectomy -- I have massive fibroids that cause crippling pain -- I know I'm keeping my ovaries, but not sure about the cervix.]

Logically, I accept the surgery and it's practical, functional benefits: no periods, no chronic pain, no uncomfortable abdominal pressure from enlarged uterus, no "Alien Predator" fibroid mass-creature ready to erupt out of my abdomen.

Yay.

But, I'm only 32 -- if I live an average lifespan how will living without a uterus for decades work?

Someone tell me, please.

I'm scared that this vacant space will cause things to shift and muddle inside of me. I'm scared things will eventually "collapse" without the uterus there in its position. I'm scared my vagina will atrophy and wither along with my libido.

I'm just worried that by the time I'm 50 or 60 (decades post-op) I will be a mess.

I'm so upset. This is just so hard.

[Insert cheese with wine here please.]

I can deal with never having biological children. I just wish I had a sense of quality of life over a long span.

:-/

Well, I can't answer totally answer from personal experience since I am only 11 1/2 years out. I am fine by the way, though my hysterectomy was not a happily ever after experience.

I can tell you my mom is about 26 years out from her TVH and my aunt (not blood related) is about 19 years out from her TVH/BSO and both are fine. Any health issues they have are unrelated to their hysterectomies. My mom in natural menopause has a few more hormone related issues than my aunt who used HRT for several years for her surgical menopause.

My SIL is about 20 years out from her TAH/BSO and is back on HRT because of osteopenia issues. Otherwise, she hasn't had any issues with having had a hysterectomy.

I can't guarantee all will go well for you or that it won't. There are side effects to a hysterectomy and I know from personal experience that some of us do get to be the statistic. But I am also the only person I know in my offline life who had hysterectomy complications short and long term, though my grandmother did have hormonal issues.

The organs do shift a bit but a normal uterus is only the size of your fist. So, we aren't talking about a lot of space. Pelvic prolapse can be an issue but doctors do their best to tack everything in place to prevent that problem from occurring solely because of a hysterectomy. Your other concerns revolve around hormonal concerns. As long as your ovaries continue to function, you should be fine in those areas. If your ovaries fail, you may need to consider HRT to try to eliminate those issues.

I can't sugar coat it and promise this will be the best thing you ever did, you will not regret it, everything will be fine, etc. None of us has any way of knowing if that will be true. But the stats are on your side.

Have you talked to your doctor about your fears? Have you sought a second opinion about what is best for you? There are options for treating a fibroid besides a hysterectomy. You can look through our Fibroid Resources to learn more.

Thanks Weiser. I have been living with this for awhile and looked at alternatives to a hysterectomy. But one of the largest fibroids (grapefruit-sized) is submucosal, which is one of the more problematic types. My ob told me that if I wanted to have children she'd have to send me to a specialist in town, the only one she would recommend that could even attempt to salvage my uterus. However, I'm honestly okay with not having bio children; I would love to adopt, it would be an honor. Frankly, it's not worth it to me to go through additional surgeries/procedures to try and save my uterus. My ob was honest with me that the probability of my fibroids not growing back was very low, so I would still have to go in for a hyst at some point.

Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better this morning. Just looking forward to my appointment this Friday, where I'm meeting my surgeon. (There are three daVinci doctors where I live and my ob was not one of them, so she sent me to her colleague, whom I'm meeting this Friday.)

Wish this was circa Star Trek times already, and I could just have Bones place a little electronic "band-aid" on my abdomen and everything would just be okay in 30 mins., :-0

This is how my doctor put it to me:

There won't be a physical void inside of you, there's no "hole" where it used to be. Think of a bowl of spaghetti with a meatball in the middle of it. When you remove the meatball, all of the spaghetti sinks in to fill the space...

The only void can be emotional of course, but physically, everything that surrounds your uterus will shift a bit and take up the space.

That's a pretty cool visual. Thank you.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by TrishFD This is how my doctor put it to me: There won't be a physical void inside of you, there's no "hole" where it used to be. Think of a bowl of spaghetti with a meatball in the middle of it. When you remove the meatball, all of the spaghetti sinks in to fill the space... The only void can be emotional of course, but physically, everything that surrounds your uterus will shift a bit and take up the space.

I can not personally say much, seeing as how I am only 8 weeks out at this point.
However, I talked to 5 ladies at my bible study that are at least 20-30 years out. All 5 of them had nothing but wonderful things to say about their hysterectomy and none reported any horrible side effects like prolapse, etc. Some took HRT, some not. That did not seem to alter their long term outcome. My great grandmother had a hysterectomy long, long ago when she was 30. She lived to be a very healthy, vibrant 88 year old. I am guessing that surgical technique was not as great that long ago, but she still had no problems.
Of course, their experiences do not guarantee anything. At 33, believe me, I also spent a lot of time researching, asking questions, and weighing the pros and cons of this surgery. Ultimately, for me, there were more pros.
Good luck in all your research and planning.

I don't care about any shifting ... 20-30 years without a period?! I'll take it!