Upcoming 2018 hysterectomy - emotions or hormones?

I've been doing (overdoing? LOL) my research to prep for my hysterectomy in Jan and I think I've got a handle on dealing with the physical issues. But I don't want to be blindsided by getting emotional.

I've been on constant birth control pills the last 5+ years besides a couple breaks a year because of such bad period issues, so I haven't really had to deal with mood swings and crying jags and general PMS swings. I'm 46 and never had kids but never wanted any so I have no issues with the emotional concerns about not having kids. I'm actually kinda thrilled looking forward to a life without periods and pain! I'm planning on leaving ovaries but still know they can take a while to come back online after surgery.

So how do you know if you get emotional during recovery because of just plain recovery from trauma to your body or if you should seek help for hormone imbalance?

Interesting question. Not everyone gets "emotional" during their recovery. For me, the closest I came was one morning when I woke up and really needed to pee right away, but couldn't just jump out of bed and go do it. No, I had to lever myself up, slowly and carefully, using a modified version of the log roll method while all the time trying to "hold it." (I was successful.) This was maybe in my second week after surgery. I was getting tired of not just being to get out of bed without thinking about it.

From what I've read in the posts here, the women who seem to get the most emotional are those whose expectations aren't met. They were expecting that recovery would be shorter or easier, that there would be less pain involved or that they would be back to their normal routines sooner. Sometimes they expected more support from family or friends than they're getting. Sometimes it's family members who have unrealistic expectations.

Recovery is a different time in your life, with different rules. It will be what it is and will last as long as it needs to. You need to adapt to it, because it's sure not going to adapt to you. I'd suggest that if you're clear on that point going in, you have a lot less chance of becoming "emotional."

Hi RoperGrl -

That is a good question, and one not easy to answer. Physical, emotional and mental recovery is different for everyone. And you will not know how it will be for you until you are there. Here is an article on
Sleeping Ovaries after Hysterectomy?

I was emotional before my surgery and even more so after my surgery. I lost everything - uterus, cervix, tubes and ovaries - so I was rudely thrown into surgical menopause at age 46. That did not help either. This was not a surgery I wanted, but was the best solution given my medical condition. I felt fine before the surgery and worse after the surgery.

In addition, for me surgical menopause was MISERABLE. My GP put me on HRT and it gave me my life back. I did wait for about 3 months before going in for surgical menopause to make sure that it was actually surgical menopause issues.

Thanks for the replies. I'm a very driven person so I'm expecting my physical recovery itself will make me emotional. I remember being out trying to do horse chores on crutches a few days after hip surgery!

I think hormonal fluctuations scare me more than the surgery itself. I'm very controlled about my emotions so I'm trying to get prepared for being a little out of control for a while so I'm not freaked out or jumping to conclusions.

Thanks again for the support and experiences - gives me something to wrap my head around.

It's all about listening to your body. My body was perfectly fine with crutching a mile to the supermarket and back the day after I had knee surgery (although I needed a long nap when I got home). It had very different ideas as to what level of activity was okay after my hysterectomy. I listened to it and we got along fine. :-)