What to Expect With a Hysterectomy – Well I think one of the biggest questions that we run into that women often ask is whether they will have menopause following a hysterectomy. When we speak of a hysterectomy in medical terms, we’re speaking about the removal of the uterus. That does not mean that they ovaries would be removed. So a woman’s hormonal function, her menopause symptoms or other hormonal symptoms that she might experience, those will not change as the result of a hysterectomy because we are not removing the ovaries.
Sometimes the ovaries are also removed at the same time for other reasons.
But that’s one of the biggest questions that we run into, is this going to change me hormonally? And a simple hysterectomy would not have that factor. In terms of what a person can expect following a hysterectomy that of course varies greatly depending on why they had the hysterectomy done in the first place. Because usually if someone is having a concern or a problem that is significant enough for them to be seeking what is a major surgical procedure, they’re having some sort of difficulty either with bleeding, or pain or some sort of other symptoms.
And so generally they feel a large sense of relief once the surgery’s completed and once they’ve recovered from the surgery because it’s being done to correct something that’s been a frustration or a problem for them.
Of course, it is a major surgery and even if you have a situation which will permit you to do a hysterectomy in a minimally invasive fashion – that means using some combination of vaginal or laparoscopic surgery, it’s still a major surgery and it is still something for which people need several weeks off of work and several weeks of recovery time, generally somewhere in the nature of four weeks, sometimes six or even eight weeks to recover.
And so that’s another issue that comes up for a lot people that I end up talking with them about is some people just don’t realize that it is a significant surgery and it will take some time to recover from that..