Questions, fears, concerns, support

Hi ladies,
I'm scheduled for surgery in a week. In addition to having to remove the uterus due to fibroids which have made me seriously anemic, the reason for doing it so soon is because CA125 blood tests came back high and they want to rule out ovarian cancer.

After going through the explanation of the surgery, and having time to research what's up, I have some concerns that I'm thinking someone could help me address from their own experience.

If they discover I don't have cancer, should I keep my ovaries? I'm 45 and am worried about HRT and forced menopause.

What about keeping my cervix? I've read it possibly is connected to sexual pleasure as well as being helpful in minimizing urinary incontinence.

Finally, if you had your ovaries removed, how has HRT affected you? My main worries are around lost sexual function and pleasure as this is part of my life I'm not ready to lose.

Thanks---

Hi Anna133 --

I was 45 when I had my hyst (TAH/BSO 1/5/01) almost 3 years ago.

I had an ultrasound and a CT scan before my hyst, the ultrasound showed my uterus full of large fibroids (and uterus was enlarged) and the CT scan showed a cyst on my left ovary. My CA125 came back highly elevated, also. There are many things that can affect that (afterwards my doc told me that possibly, because I had my period when the blood was drawn, and also because I had a lot of endo, which wasn't discovered until my surgery, it can cause a high # result of the CA125). Turned out I did not have cancer.

Keeping your ovaries, or losing them, is a tough call. I went into surgery with the doc telling me that if they looked healthy, she would leave one (or both, if she could remove the cyst and leave the left ovary intact). When I came out of surgery, she told me she had to remove both ovaries, my uterus, and my cervix.

To be honest, losing my cervix has not affected my sexual response at all -- things are actually better, since I'm not in pain 2 weeks out of every month!!

Because I had so much endo, I was on minimal hrt for the first 6 months of my recovery (0.3 mg Premarin, smallest dose available) but it was increased when I was 6 months post op to .625 mg and I do well on that.

I was lucky and found the hrt that works well for me without too much trouble (I tried switching from Premarin at one point to some of the bio-identicals but felt lousy on them and went back to Premarin). Some women have to try several different hrt's to find the one that works for them.

Your concerns are definitely valid ones and you're smart to do some research before your surgery.......good luck to you! I just thought I'd pass along my experience, since I was the age you are now when I had my hyst.

Ann
TAH/BSO 1/5/01

If they find out that you don't have cancer I would suggest keeping your ovaries. The cerfix really has no play in sexual response, so losing it would be no problem. Besides some people have "mini" periods when they keep it. I kept my ovaries and I am glad that I did. I still have to be checked once a year to make sure they are doing Ok.

Good luck with your surgery and recovery.