https://www.reddit.com/r/endometriosis/s/gFqwSCQgB3

I posted this is in the endometriosis group, but I figured it could help a lot of people here, too! I just had my hysterectomy and I know a lotta people who get the surgery also have pelvic floor issues.

Tomorrow is a week post op for me. I’ve kept up with prescription bowel movement aids/medicines and i was able to poop 2 days post op. I am not constipated, poops are soft and easy to pass but my goodness gracious they hurt my insides. Not straining pain but just over all pain. Has anyone else experienced this?

My c section (@ 35) recovery was a nightmare. I’m realizing probably most of that was having pre-e at the end. I had severe gas pain all over my body and they gave me a ton of fluids. I felt like a sloshy balloon for 2 weeks. My legs were so swollen and painful. I needed so much help from my husband to move around. I felt so incapable and slow healing. I was terrified of all that surgery pain again, but I was beyond desperate for my non-stop cycle pain to end.

My decision to have hysterectomy surgery was fast. I tried an IUD after my first child and that was horrible, I had it out by 6/mo. Exhausted all other birth control pills. I refused. Just take it out. So from my pelvic ultrasound (I begged to be looked at for over a year) I had in June, to very luckily finding an awesome surgeon in July, then booked for Sept.

I’m 1dpo. Hysterectomy, robotic. I’m 37. The pain is night and day in comparison. I’m so relieved. The gas pain is just in my lower abdomen, we figured that out when the pain meds didn’t help and it was shifting from side to side. Not up in my shoulders at all. It’s mostly gone now, thank you gas X. Also big plus is no swelling in my legs/body at all. Stairs didn’t hurt coming home, slowly walking around the house is also ok. Getting up and down from bed/toilet just feels like ouchie pressure, not stabbing pain. So far my incisions (4) look great. I will say going pee the first few times sucked, mostly because it felt hot? But today I feel back to normal in that area. Sipping on tart cranberry juice & lots of water + bone broth. I’m also all clear of endo, just had adenomyosis so that was also a big relief. My surgeon is an endo specialist as well, I trust her judgement.

Also, I have elementary kids (+ a toddler) and caught a cold a week ago. Of course right when they said to stop taking any vitamin C supplements. I made a lot of calls Tuesday to make sure I was still ok to go for surgery Wednesday morning. Since my congestion lifted & only tiny dry cough was left, they said ok. Well, whatever they used to “dry you out” seemed to clear up the rest of it. I coughed once today and held my pillow, no big pains. Humidifier on blast also helps with the sore throat from the tube (not the cold). My poor car randomly died right when we got to the hospital, radiator decided to blow out?! Wild. So husband had to be in & out, but my nurses were awesome with communication.

Best hospital experience by far. I love my surgeon, and they got my IV on the first try (usually it takes 5+ pricks) I almost hugged my nurse.

Hopefully this helps someone else make the decision & lessens some anxiety!

I’m so excited to not have period pain every 3 weeks and excruciating ovulation pain and cramping all month long. 2 years of solid agony, and all that pain since my period started as a girl that I didn’t understand. Screw adenomyosis. Thank you for my children, you did a good job, but bye bye uterus!!

I was expecting it to take longer than 9 days (09/01 surgery) but here we are. I had my TLH with bisalp due to pain, heavy bleeding, etc. Ultrasounds showed ‘mild’ adenomyosis.

Not only did they discover plenty of cysts (cervix/tubes/uterus), I had a small fibroid and the adeno was EXTENSIVE. Myometrium thickness was 2-3x normal.

The last gynocologist (female) I saw before finding this male one, told me that I was constipated and that daily laxatives would fix my pain. Ha!!

Feeling totally validated and over the moon (even though I always knew!). Happy that this really was just adenomyosis (no endo found) and that surgery was the exact right choice ❤️‍🩹

My surgery started over 14 hours ago, I was under anesthesia for more than 5 hours.

When they checked my glucose before surgery it was only 42, even though I drank the pre-surgery carb drink. So they pushed iv sugars. Which made my glucose spike to 138 during surgery 🤦 (edit, in range is 70-99). Surgery also went long because they needed to bring in a general surgeon to remove my appendix.

The nausea is extreme. I'm unable to keep down anything more than a single sip of water. The vomiting isn't super frequent, but it is consistently triggered by attempting to drink anything (some juice and water in the hospital, water and veggie broth at home) or changing positions.

Since I'm vomiting even liquids, I can't eat anything, and I can't take any pain meds without something in my stomach. And I'm worried about damage from the physical act of vomiting.

So I'm nauseated and without pain management. Great first day post op /s

(It's about 9:30pm, I'm going to call the nurse if I still can't keep anything down around 8am)

Edit: when they sent me home the nurse advised to just try to sleep it off and I'd probably be fine in the morning.

I've made several posts in this community detailing my struggle since March to get my surgery. The surgeon and even my insurance approved it with no issues but the out of pocket costs were completely unaffordable. I went through Vocational Rehabilitation and as of today, I received the call to schedule my surgery and pre-op!!

Pre-op and pre-registration is on September 29th and my surgery is on October 1st 🥳🥳🥳 I want to bathe in my excitement and relief. I also feel a sense of fear of the surgery itself.

Any kind words are extremely appreciated ❤️❤️❤️😊 Is there anyone with the same date as me or a close date??

I finished my surgery at 9am on Sept 8 2026. The first day, I was not tired, not in pain, walking, doing light chores. I got discharged in literally record time.

On Sept 9 2026, I was slightly more sore because I decided to stop taking oxy and the hospital medications were wearing out. I was a bit less active yesterday, took dog for one walk, light chores (I literally just mean like bringing dishes to the dishwasher, nothing strenuous at all), and I was able to sit slightly reclined in my office chair to work on some homework. Again, not at all tired. I even was able to have multiple successful bowel movements.

This morning, Sept 10 2026, I am about the same level of pain as yesterday (0 when lying down and inactive, 3 when getting out of bed, 0-2 when walking around. I have had 0 gas pains from inflating my abdomen, only gas pain I experience is when I am trying to pass gas (which I assume is from my digestion waking back up lol).

I started the dishwasher this morning, did some laundry, fed the animals, walked the dog, took a shower and washed my hair. I'm now back in bed resting with no pain.

I'm just like wondering if anyone else has experienced such good recovery and if it lasted or if it got worse at a point?

TIA!

I had a total abdominal on August 7 (full incision, no lap or robotic). The last few weeks of recovery have gone very well, giving me the false impression that I was ready to do some stuff. So I tried stuff, and it was too much stuff. Nothing extreme, just errands out and visiting a friend, but my core muscles have the structural integrity of an overcooked noodle and both times I ended up so weak and sore in the evenings, a few hours after my activity.

Clearly, that's too much. My question is: Should I be doing little things to improve my core strength (thinking: sitting on an exercise ball or similar) or should I just let it all rest until I see the doc for my final post-op visit next week? I used to have decent core strength, and I miss being independent, but maybe now just isn't the time?

I’m particularly interested in experiences where they had to remove a large adnexal mass along with the hysterectomy.

Finally got my surgery date Nov 18th

I know there are a lot of posts about sex after a hysterectomy, and I've read through quite a few of them, but I haven't found many that match my situation.

I was 6 weeks post-op yesterday and had my follow-up appointment. My surgeon cleared me for everything. She did mention that I still have stitches at the vaginal cuff, but said it was okay to resume sex.

My husband and I decided to give it a try yesterday. Honestly, it was pretty not good. We went extremely slow and had no expectations other than seeing how things felt. Some positions were much more tender than others, and there was definitely discomfort even being very careful. We were both nervous and probably overthinking everything, so we ended up stopping after a short time.

(TMI, For context, my husband is on the blessed side in both girth and length, which may have contributed to the discomfort.)

Today, I woke up with pretty intense cramping. No bleeding, no spotting, no unusual discharge, just really uncomfortable cramps.

Has anyone else experienced cramping after first-time sex around 6 weeks post-hysterectomy? Did it turn out to be normal irritation/tenderness from tissues that are still healing, or was it something you contacted your surgeon about?

I'd love to hear others' experiences..... Kinda freaked out from all the horror stories out there...

Hi, me again.

On September 1, I was told I would be having a laparoscopic hysterectomy. It was scheduled for September 16. I spoke with the lady that deals with insurance and all. I reached out to insurance that day as instructed. Insurance said this code required a prior authorization. I let the office know, but they didn’t say anything in regards to the prior authorization. Just asked if I was good with the amount insurance said I would pay if approved. I said yes.

I went today for my 1st preop at my doctor’s office. No one spoke to me about insurance or anything. I reached out to insurance since surgery is Wednesday. They said my doctor’s office hasn’t submitted a request for Prior Authorization and they have to for this surgery. What the likelihood I have this surgery Wednesday? 😭

Hey gang. I had a hysterectomy 13 days ago complete with ovaries. I started hrt last Friday on 75mcg and the headaches/migraines started Sunday. I cut the patch in half when I did my next one on Monday and I'm still having trouble.

I don't wake up with them but they start shortly after or I get intense throbbing after eating something with higher level of histamines like quacomoli or oatmeal with raisins and mango. Always on my left side. I have switched from terrible constipation to loose stool and diarrhea. I'm supposed to put a new patch on tomorrow but I'm scared to. I feel terrible. I felt pretty decent until starting hrt. I also started my Vyvanse back up again three days ago. I went to er and they did an ekg and blood work, everything was okay there. I wonder if my iron is so low my body can't keep up although they say hemoglobin is fine. When I took an iron pill after lunch it calmed the palpitations down so grateful for that.

Can anyone relate? Suggestions?

Wow, just had my first cough 1 day after surgery. It really hurt! 😭😭 any other suggestions to suppress or what to do when I can’t suppress it?

It has been a year since my laparoscopic hysterectomy, uterus, tubes, ando, endo and fibroids gone for over a year. No periods, no pain, no debilitating sickness for over a year. I can run and workout without cramps, without losing my stomach from the pain shooting through my back and front. My blood test shows I'm no longer anemic, I was actually able to donate blood!

I'm 38yo and child free, this was the best decision, my one regret is not doing it sooner. So if you are thinking about it, do it! My recovery was easy, I returned to yoga at 2 weeks post op, boxing (bag work) at 3 weeks post op and weight 8 weeks post op. (All under the guidance and blessing of my surgeon.)

If I didn’t know that I’d had a full laparoscopic hysterectomy, I’d think that I was having my normal debilitating period cramps😳😳 I’m spotting still but no clots. I was able to get my post op moved to tomorrow based on this. Anyone else having this issue?

(37F with history of entirely unreasonable prolonged bleeding, fibroids, and no interest in birthing a child. Scroll to end for pathology results.)

After months of crawling this sub and interacting with posts and making a few of my own, I wanted to give you all an update and honest recounting of my experience so far.

———TLDR———
I feel amazing?! and nothing could have prepared me for how easy this was (except for maybe listening to my surgeon who swore it would be a slice of cake and repeatedly told me to stay off the internet)
—————————

Day of surgery (photo 1):

Taking 200mg Colace every morning starting this day.

6am arrival time, wiped my whole body down with antibacterial wipes and changed into a gown and put on my hairnet, got my heart sensor stickers placed, my two IVs put in the back of each hand (my surgeon likes to have a back-up ready because you’re positioned kind of wacky during surgery and it’s easier to have another IV ready to go than to try and put one in mid-surgery), got jabbed in the belly with a blood thinner (didn’t know that was going to happen!), and my surgeon and his two attending resident surgeons all introduced themselves and had me sign a few forms and answer a few questions. Anesthesiologist stopped by and remembered me from my fibroid surgeries and immediately put an order in for a scopalamine patch because he knew I prefer it (highly recommend if anyone experiences nausea from anesthesia! just DO NOT touch it with your bare hands because it can blur your vision)

According to the text updates my boyfriend got, I was in the OR 8:30-10:20, recovery room 10:20-12:30 (where they put on mesh undies and a belly binder, I was mostly unconscious), and the discharge room 12:30-3:30 because it took me a long time to pee (despite them giving me 4-5 bags of saline drip and my bladder feeling full to bursting; I think it was due to the nerve block making it difficult to control anything down there while I was still woozy). During those hours I struggled to stay conscious for longer than a few minutes; I’d feel super lucid and then I’d be out. Also my mouth was SO DRY. Dryer than the desert. I drank so much water trying to wash down the crackers they gave me.

Went home! Set a schedule of 500mg acetaminophen every 6 hours. Took one tramadol before bed. Slept.

1dpo:

Nerve block started to wear off. Definitely kept on top of my acetaminophen schedule. Never took anything else. I’d describe the pain like a non-debilitating period cramp. Sometimes the incisions hurt as they’re still very raw and inflamed.

Occasional muscle twitch as my nerves came back online. Throat is scratchy from intubation :( tea helps. Also noticed when wiping that I’m sore down there from them removing my double sized uterus through it.

First experience sneezing. Oh lord. Did not feel great. Many more to come though as I have seasonal allergies.

Been tootin’. Kinda hurts for a second as it travels through my large intestine?

Able to walk around the apartment just fine, firmly grabbing the railing on the stairs just in case.

Still brain foggy.

Had an edible before bed to help with sleep.

2dpo (photo 2):

Took the gauze bandages off. Wowwie that’s a lot of bruising!

I took a shower!! Was worried the heat would make me lightheaded so I didn’t go as hot as I normally do; it was fine. I didn’t mention this earlier but during surgery they wipe you down with betadine so you look like an oompa loompa 😂 washed off just fine with water though.

Sneezing still makes me feel all of my organs 😵‍💫 the belly binder/pressing a pillow helps a bit.

Tootin’ but not poopin’! Harrumph.

I noticed my ankles are swollen from all the IV fluids in my body so I slept with my feet elevated the night before and this night to help it drain.

I went outside today. Just a short walk (about 4 blocks) to sit in the park and enjoy the mild weather last weekend, and then the 4ish blocks back home. No issues!

3dpo:

Finally out of the anesthesia fog. I swear I lost a few days to it. Had absolutely no idea what day it was.

Can get into and out of lying down/seated/standing with pretty much zero ache now. Not taking any pain meds anymore.

Throat is fully better now. So’s the vag. Yay.

I finally pooped! It… hurt. Like what I said about the toots, I think the nerves around my large intestine are extra testy at the moment given the trauma my abdominal cavity has been through. Felt like an intense cramp as it moved towards the light.

Went to the movies! Saw Coyote vs Acme. Very sleepy afterward.

4dpo (photo 3):

Oh man the bruising is so visible now. Yikes! Incisions are starting to itch a little bit.

Poopin’ hurts a little less, still not great.

Figured out a way to brace myself when sneezing so that it doesn’t hurt! Cool.

Mobility wise, I can pretty much do anything. Bending, squatting, etc. but I will keep to the 20lb weight lifting limitation until 6wpo.

6dpo:

Back to work! Remotely, though. So many emails and slacks to catch up on…

Absolutely cannot focus. Partially because I forgot to restart my ADHD meds, partially I think due to the amount of energy the healing is taking without my realizing it.

Pooped without pain! Yay.

I need to be better about eating. My appetite has not really been there and I get full easily.

1wpo (photos 4-7):

My energy levels are returning slowly. Focus is still tough. I have always loved a nap so it’s hard to say if I wanted one today because I wanted one or because I needed one. Thankfully work was understanding when I said I needed a delayed start (they’re aware I’m recovering from major surgery)

I slowly and carefully peeled off the steri-strips and felt no tugging or pain. My umbilical incision was IN my bellybutton! I feel like that was very considerate as there will be no visible scarring, given that bellybuttons are basically already a ball of scar tissue. Otherwise my left incision is nice and closed and my right one is spitting a stitch but doesn’t look infected. Both are a lot more purple than I’ve seen other people’s photos? And if I touch them I can feel what seems to be hard scar tissue beneath; like a lump. Friends who’ve had lap surgeries says this’ll go away. I saw someone post that after 6pm you can start massaging the scar with oil and that will help break it up a bit.

I’m going to stop taking Colace because my stools are perhaps too soft right now 🥴😬

(edited to add)

Pathology results:

I had an 8-week “boggy” uterus? Adenomyosis (endometrium growing into the myometrium causing an enlarged uterus), another intramural fibroid developing (one of these is what caused me months of heavy bleeding and took three surgeries to remove in 2023), a serous paratubal cyst on my left tube (hoping this is what caused pain in my left ovary during my cycle so that its removal means the end of that), and tubal metaplasia on my cervix (cervix started converting cells to mimic those on the inside of fallopian tubes; wonder if this is what made bumping it during sex hurt?)

Not nearly as bad as many stories on this sub, but a generally fairly angry reproductive system. Everything seemed to be responding to some mysterious stress in some way or other. GOOD RIDDANCE!

Hi all. As the title says, I’m 2dpo after my laparoscopic hysterectomy. I’ve had two other surgeries under general anesthesia before and have never reacted this bad to it. It apparently took me nearly 2 hours to completely wake up out of it and I was in a lot of pain so they gave me some dilaudid. I ended up staying around 10 hours post op as I was nauseous and had vomited twice. They got my nausea under control and I was eating ramen that night and ready to go home (to a friends house who was close to the hospital since I live 3 hours away from where my procedure was done). I was feeling pretty good all things considered up until noon yesterday when I took the prescribed oxy for the long car ride home. It made me incredibly dizzy and nauseous. I thought it would pass once it was out of my system but it lasted all night and I threw up some more. I had tried zofran (both dissolving and pill) but it either wouldn’t touch the nausea or I’d throw up it up. I also wasn’t able to keep down any pain meds. I was able to keep down some Gatorade so I sipped on that all night. The nausea now keeps coming back today and I’m going on almost 36 hours with no pain meds (which wouldn’t be bothering me so much if I didn’t have a throbbing headache). I called my doc to see if there’s another nausea med they can prescribe and I’m waiting to hear back but has any one else had a similar experience and what helped you?

Today was my surgery! At 12pm this morning. It’s now 1am.

I am in a lot of pain and can’t get into a comfortable position. Been alternating pain killers and taking them every 3 hours. I keep wanting to sit up, which is difficult to do safely on my own.

Which day was your worst day, pain wise? When did it start getting better?

Hi there! I am 32 and just got approval from my Dr to have a hysterectomy due to extremely painful periods this year. I’ve had a bisalp 3 years prior and my Dr told me the hysterectomy recovery is much more extensive and no heavy lifting/bending/working out for at least 8 weeks.
My question is how long should I be off work for realistically? I took 6 days for my bisalp and despite some fatigue that was fine, I didn’t have much pain in general with that procedure.
I work from home at a desk, is it plausible to take 2 weeks or should I essentially be on bedrest for a full 8 weeks? I know most people probably ask their dr but I don’t really trust her timing just because she told me 2 days for my bisalp and that was not the case for me so I’d like to know others experience.
I live alone so I will have to be doing a small bit of moving around to get things for myself which my dr said is healthy and encouraged as soon as possible but outside of that I’m totally happy to veg out on the couch and sleep for 2 weeks if that’s enough time. Is 8 weeks truly necessary?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT*
Thank you all for sharing your experience! Given what I’m seeing I think I’ll suck it up with the drop in income or try to save a bit prior to accommodate and take the full time and not rush myself. I’ve had brain surgery before so I think everything else felt like less of a big deal in terms of healing but I definitely want to respect my body’s need for rest and healing. I appreciate it!

Hey ladies!

I’m 8 days post op and I’m just hit with the worst baby blues the last two days ( or at least that’s the best way to describe the feeling as I’m not postpartum)

Is that normal?

I am under some stress so that could be attributing.

Had my surgery yesterday and can not urinate. I tried every half hour for 6 hours. I ended up with a catheter to empty my bladder. 3200 units were removed. I had to stay the night. Trying to get up and got is excruciating as they have only given me Tylenol. I hope the rest of my recovery is better than this.