To keep or not to keep, that is the question

tijunkie.... Thanks for your reply.... I was soooooo glad to hear from someone who kept everything... I've been tossing and turning over this one and your post made me feel so much BETTER ! You mentioned overhang... What is that?

I am 41 and had my uterus cervix and 1 ovary removed. I have a strong family history of ovarian, colon and breast cancer. Due to this I had genetic testing done prior to my hyst. I had the brca1 and2 done, also colaris, which is the gene for colon cancer since my mother died at 57 from this. If my tests showed that i carried the gene for any of these I would have opted to have both ovaries removed. Thank god they all came out neg., which means my chances now are the same as the general population. If they had come out pos. my chances for any one of these would have increased to 80 percent. If i were you i would strongly take my family history into consideration. It is a very personal and big decision to make. Knowledge is the best tool you have. Best wishes and god bless. baily

Hi all. I am new here. first time. Gee I feel like the youngest here getting this done.

As far as electing what to have done. MY wizzard suggested everything. Since I have had pain for so long and endo for so long, she said if I kept my ovaries then I could still haev endo attached to them. Also she is taking the cervix because of my histroy with dyplasia. I know this is a hard decision, but I do feel it is a personal one. I wanted to keep atleast one ovary. But she said that there would be the possiblity of having to have them removed later and like the rest of us, once is enough for me.

I do hope you find peace and comfort with this and that you can make a calm and rationally decision that will be best for you.

The overhang is that little pooch over my bikini incision. It's normal in a healing wound, which contracts and tightens. Kind of like if you stretched a rubberband around your middle....some flesh would hang over it.

Hmmmmm.....Can anything be done about overhang? Will exercise help?

I did not know that my cervix was removed during surgery. After I came home and began to read here I noticed many people saying that they experienced mini-periods when they kept their cervix.

I had surgery because of having 2 periods a month for years and I did not want this to happen again. I was a nervous wreck and I was afraid that I would have these mini-periods. At that point I was sorry that I had the surgery if that were going to be the case for me.

I waited the 5 weeks and went for my followup. When I asked about the mini-periods he said "Oh that won't happen for you, you don't have a cervix." I was extrememly greatful. I don't want any "periods" at all.

That was the only question for me. I have my ovaries and they are doing very well. Glad cerix is gone, glad ovaries stayed for me.

GOD BLESS!!!!

I exercise a lot, and am pretty fit at age 40.

It gets better....I can hardly see evidence of it in a bathing suit anymore. Just a little longer I think. Time is really what it takes!

Thanks.... that's encouraging news! It's soooo nice to have other "sisters" out there to talk to about these things, as the internet has too much negative info... Sure helps calm the nerves to know there is always someone out there.