A lot of decisions

I have had abnormal paps since the birth of my youngest child 7 years ago. For 2 years now I have had extremely heavy periods with horrible cramping. I explained it away as stress. I have continued having paps as recommended and they come back abnormal, but not cancerous or precancerous. I went 8 weeks without a period and had signs of early menopause starting in November, not uncommon though I'm 35 due to infertility treatments. Last Monday I started the worst period ever and today I had an ultrasound and endometrial biopsy. The gynecologist said that the lining of my uterus is extremely thick given that I just ended my period and the bleeding was very heavy. His recommendation for quite some time has been a hysterectomy, but today we talked more about it and I think I'm ready to make that choice. We talked about options and I'm overwhelmed. He wants to take my cervix and I'm ok with that given the abnormal paps, but I'm concerned about recovery time. How much time can I expect to need off of work? What can I expect of the recovery? I'll ask these questions of him when I call tomorrow, but I'm looking for advise from a crowd who has been there. I'm extremely nervous about this and wondering exactly how much help I'm going to need while I recover.

I'm glad you're asking your dr. all these questions! It's really too vast of a question for anyone to answer since everyone is different. Depends on your surgery (laproscopic, vaginal, etc.) as each one has diff. recovery time. I'm sure you are finding lots to read on this site...you've certainly found the right one with lots of info! I pray that you make the right decision for you and that you don't feel rushed into anything without knowing what to expect. Did you download and read the free booklet for signing up to this site? Unfortunatly I didn't get mine till AFTER my 8wk. post op visit but there is a lot of excellent info in it!
Don't be nervous, just guard yourself with information!

Are type of procedure does your dr recommend - laparoscopic, vaginal or abdominal? The answer to you question is quite different depending on procedure. If you can go with LAVH or TVH, the recovery isn't bad, at least for me. Everyone is different, but I've been surprised at how easy by LAVH (including cervix) has been. Back to work in one week (I work from home), at three weeks I have no pain. Still a little more tired than usual, but otherwise it is mostly hard not to do too much because I feel so normal.

I have had some dizziness and vertigo which seems to be an inner ear problem, probably an infection picked up at the hospital. If not for that, I would say I feel great.

I have suffered with periods all my life but have managed with the pill for years then coils until 2 years ago I still had coil in place but bleeds got very wrong either 2 in one month or a very heavy one and spotting in-between I also have PCOS. Low iron issues ect I am 3 weeks nearly post op TAH with ovaries left it depends on surgery and work you do if you have a low impact job with no lifting here in uk it's about 6-8 weeks but if you have a manual job with heavy work then 3-6 months a school teacher I know had 6 months off went back to work and clearly wasnot ready had to have the rest of the year off so depends on you, your surgery and your job.