Hysterectomy : Keeping ovaries may prolong your life
Traditionally, if a woman over 40 is having a hysterectomy she is advised to have her ovaries taken out to reduce the risk of developing ovarian cancer. While this is very good advice if you are at high risk of developing ovarian cancer, it’s not necessarily the best advice for other women. Risks of removing [...]
Hysterectomy or uterine artery embolization?
Most women have heard of hysterectomy, being removal of the uterus, for treating uterine fibroids but many may not be familiar with uterine artery embolization (UAE). This is a procedure where arteries leading to the fibroids are blocked so that the fibroids effectively starve and shrink. This procedure can be used on its own to [...]
Menopause & Vaginal Dryness – Causes and treatments/ solutions
Vaginal dryness, irritation and burning are common symptoms of menopause which affect different women to varying degrees. During and after menopause, estrogen levels continue to fall gradually until they stabilize at a new lower level. This means that vaginal dryness is usually not experienced until several years after menopause. The vaginal tissue depends on estrogen [...]
Before your hysterectomy
Before your doctor gets to the stage of recommending a hysterectomy for you, usually he/she will have done the following: Taken a complete medical history from you including types of symptoms, their duration and severity. Done a thorough physical examination which may include a vaginal exam. Done some tests to confirm his/her diagnosis. Your doctor [...]
Having a hysterecomy? – 5 reasons to hang on to your ovaries
About 600 hysterectomies are performed in the U.S every year and about half or these are accompanied by removal of apparently normal ovaries. The reasoning behind this is that it reduces the occurrence of ovarian cancer, i.e. if your ovaries aren’t there, then they can’t become cancerous. Ovarian cancer is not common – about 1 [...]
Does black cohosh relieve menopause symptoms?
The herb black cohosh is used by many menopausal women to relieve symptoms of menopause especially hot flashes and night sweats as an alternative to estrogen/progesterone hormone replacement therapy. However, the results of a study published recently found that it was no more effective than placebo (usually an inactive sugar pill) for treating menopause symptoms. [...]
Sex after hysterectomy
Sex drive after hysterectomy You may have heard that your sex drive will go down after a hysterectomy and that you’ll no longer enjoy sex. Actually, about 75% of women find that their libido remains unchanged and 20% actually had increased sexual desire. If you expect to have lower libido you may actually think yourself [...]
Hysterectomy side effects
Hysterectomy side effects include excessive bleeding damage to nearby organs e.g. bladder, gut infection pulmonary embolism You are more likely to develop side effects of a hysterectomy: if you are obese if you are having a hysterectomy because of cancer if you have any medical condition e.g. diabetes the older you are, the more likely [...]
Hysterectomy
Hysterectomy is the second most common major operation performed in the Western world after cesarean section. About 30% of women over 50 in the US have had a hysterectomy. There is a lot of unreasonable fear surrounding this procedure. Some of these fears come from reports from other women who have had a hysterectomy. These [...]
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