Supracervical Hysterectomy

I AM NEW TO THE SITE, AND I GUESS I DON'T UNDERSTAND ALL THE ABBREV., BUT I HAVEN'T HEARD MENTION THAT MUCH OF SUPRACERVCAL VAGINAL HYSTERECTOMY. THAT IS WHAT I AM TO HAVE, AND WAS REALLY WANTING TO KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. THEY INTEND TO LEAVE MY OVARIES AND CERVIX. ANYONE KNOW MUCH ABOUT THIS?

Hi cowchris,
I don't think there is any such thing as a supracervical vaginal hysterectomy--when the surgery is done vaginally the cervix is removed with the rest of the uterus. I think my gyn told me that there isn't any way to do the surgery vaginally and leave the cervix.

However, if what you are interested in is a surgery with shorter recovery time, & small scar, you might ask your doctor about laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy. With this method, the surgeon inserts instruments and viewing devices through small incisions in the abdomen (rather than a longer vertical or "bikini" incision such as is used for abdominal hysterectomy) and the uterus is divided into small pieces which are then removed through the tube of the surgical instrument (called morcellation). I think there are a number of Princesses who have had or are planning this type of surgery. I was going to suggest you search for "LSH", which is the abbreviation for this kind of surgery, but I just remembered the search engine requires at least four letters in a search term. But look around, because I'm pretty sure there is at least one thread going right now that deals with this.

Hope it helps,
cookie1956

Hi cowchris and welcome! There are a couple of different types of supracervical hysts (supracervical just means you keep your cervix). A SAH (supracervical abdominal hyst) is done through an abdominal incision (often a bikini cut), and an LSH (laparascopical supracervical hyst) is done through three or four tiny incisions in the abdomen with the aid of a laprascope.

Does either of those sound like what you were told you're having?

Here is a link to our Resource Links directory Pre Op section:

http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/lin...=browse&cid=20

and here's a link to the Resource Links directory Hysterectomy Options section:

http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/lin...n=browse&cid=2

There is tons of great information in those directories about the different surgical methods.

And here is a link to a list of abbreviations used on this site:

http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/vie...=abbreviations

Keep reading, and posting... I'm sure you'll find loads of helpful information and plenty of s as well!

I hope this helps.

-Linda