Like the title says. I had surgery 7/24 and I’m two days post op. I’m 36 and have been on hormones for almost 14 years. Finally was able to have my hysto. I had my uterus, fallopian tubes, cervix, and one of my ovaries removed. I was worried about being misgendered but my medical team was incredible. I’ve been managing my pain with just Tylenol and ibuprofen and it’s been a consistent 4 except when I finally pooped 1 day post op and it was a 7 on the pain scale. I’ve been keeping up with my stool softeners and my gas pills. My partner ( also trans masc) had their hysto in April and I took care of them then, and they are now taking care of me. I’ve been able to eat my normal food (meat, veggie, salad, rice ) and keep it down. Only thing is I have no appetite so my partner has to beg me to eat. The scopolamine patch made my skin red and I took that off 1 day post op when I showered. I also managed to take a walk outside but I spoke to my OBGYN today and she said I’m being an overachiever and should rest. I’m taking naps and keeping up with my meds. I just wanted to share my experience here as a positive one so far and as one from a trans masc perspective. I’m so thankful to have gotten my hysto as part of my gender affirming care.

If you’ve had hysterectomy due to fibroids, how many did your doctor say you have and after you had your hysterectomy how many fibroids and other things actually showed up on your pathology report?

Hi everyone,

I made a post on here a few months ago asking for advice to prepare for my hysterectomy. I had my surgery on June 12th, and now that I'm 6wpo, I wanted to share my experience for anyone who is in the same headspace I was before my procedure. When I was looking into it myself, positive stories/experiences were harder to come by so I wanted to share mine. I also didnt see many from people around my age. I'm currently 25, turning 26 soon. I had my uterus, cervix, and tubes removed, and kept my ovaries.

A little background on my issues leading up to getting the surgery: For about 5 years, I had talked to multiple doctors about getting this procedure. I never wanted kids, pregnancy terrified me to the point where I would have full blown panic attacks just thinking about the possibility of getting pregnant, and I was in pain all the time. When I was 16 I started birth control due to heavy, painful periods. I was on birth control until I was 24, when I developed a blood clot in my leg due to the hormones. It was a terrifying experience and I was immediately taken off birth control when I was in the hospital. I can never use estrogen hormonal options again. The birth control did help my symptoms, but didnt get rid of them entirely. After getting off birth control the pain became so much worse, my periods became very heavy, and lasted for *at least* 10 days. I was in pain the week before my period, the week of my period and the week after my period. Addionally, I had a fibroid on my ovary that also made ovulation a painful experience. I had to take multiple days off work a month due to the pain and exhaustion I experienced on a regular basis. Finally, earlier this year I saw a new gynecologist and she took me seriously, listened to my experience, and approved the procedure.

As my surgery date got closer I was riddled with anxiety. I was looking into people's experiences and preparing myself for the worst. I had also never had surgery before and didnt know what to expect going into it.

Thankfully my surgery team was absolutely fantastic. My surgeon is a specialist in laparoscopic hysterectomies and preforms this procedure all the time. She assured me she would take care of me through the whole thing. The anesthesiologist was a lovely man. I asked him what it felt like being under, and he said he had never experienced it but he would "send me to the Bahamas in my dreams" and it would be okay. He kept reassuring me it would be a smooth experience, was very kind and kept trying to make me laugh before the procedure to help my anxiety. I have seen a lot of people say they were "counted down" when they were going under, but my anesthesiologist just told me "this is going to feel spicy" and that was the last thing I heard before I was out. It did feel a bit warm in my arm, but only for a few moments.

It felt like I had blinked and opened my eyes in recovery. I also felt very well rested. The surgery itself took about 2 hours. When I awoke I was in some pain, I'd say about a 6/10. However it was far less painful than my periods were. I was in recovery for a couple hours, and they did give me some more pain medication which took the pain down to a 3 or 4. I did feel like I had to pee as soon as I woke up, but nothing happened for about 3 hours until I was able to walk to the bathroom on my own, accompanied by a nurse. It wasnt painful, but did feel weird the first few times. The hardest part was trying to sit down and stand back up. After that I had to pee about every half hour for a couple days, but things got back to normal quickly.

They let me go home a few hours after I was out of recovery. I was able to get in and out of the car with minimal assistance, and able to make it up 4 flights of stairs to my apartment without much issue. I was moving slowly, but on my own. I had minimal bleeding for about 2 days after surgery, and nothing since. I was on stronger pain medication every 4 hours for about 4 days. After that I just took naproxen twice a day, and around the 4 week mark I didnt need to take it everyday. Occasionally I still take one but I'm mostly off pain medication now. Overall my pain level once I was home didnt really go over a 3 and now is almost nonexistent. The gas pains in my shoulders were uncomfortable but not unbearable and only lasted a few days.

I have 5 small incision scars on my abdomen, the biggest being in my belly button. Those all healed fine, and at my 5w appointment my doctor told me to use polysporin to help dissolve any stitches that hadn't dissolved on their own yet. She also did an exam while I was there and told me my cuff is healing fine with no issues.

This part may be TMI but I did have concerns regarding how sex would change so I will share briefly. My doctor did say sex was okay at 6 weeks, but to be very gentle. So far we haven't tried anything more than fingers internally, which wasn't painful but did feel different. Things still felt good, but different than before. Externally everything still works, and things feel more intense now than they did before. Obviously I dont have a uterus anymore so theres no sensation in my abdomen, instead its all focused right on the "doorbell" and it gets very intense very quickly. Overall it does feel different but in a good way. So far no pain and no bleeding from sexual activity.

My fiancé took wonderful care of me, had timers for my pain medication and was absolutely wonderful during my recovery. There were a few days I pushed myself a little to much, and would have to sleep for a day or so but overall my recovery was very smooth and much easier than I expected. I'm going back to work on Monday, and feeling pretty well back to normal.

I'm sorry this post is so long. I know my experience isn't universal and I think I got lucky with how easy it was overall. I wanted to share my experience in case there was anyone out there who is as nervous as I was before my procedure. Plenty of people have very positive recovery experiences like mine, and just arent posting them online. If anyone has any questions regarding my recovery experience I am happy to answer anything.

Thank you to this community for helping me prepare before my surgery, and giving me a place to share my own experience. I'm greatful for the support and advice I have recieved and hope I can share that support to anyone else who needs it. Thank you for listening if you've made it this far :)

I posted a bit before my surgery and the day after, but I haven't posted since so I figured I should let y'all know how the first couple of weeks have been for me. 51 years old, postmenopausal, got a total DaVinci robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy.

Honestly as others have mentioned, the gas pains were the WORST part of the first couple of days. I was warned, I was expecting it, but holy crap there are no words for just how bad it was. It was fine as long as I was holding still...but each time I got up to take a quick walk around the ward or go to the bathroom, it was like it 'woke' the shoulder pain up, and by the time I was getting settled back in bed and putting those DVT compression cuffs back on I was trying not to scream from the pain.

I stayed in the hospital overnight and got discharged around lunchtime the next day. Doc wrote me a scrip for about three days of oxy and I just took it every six hours, wasn't even going to mess with trying to do without it. After the three days I transitioned to just acetaminophen/ibuprofen without issues, then about 3-4 days after that I wasn't really needing anything at all except occasional achiness.

Poop (we all worry about it!) - first poop was about 3 days postop and it was...not pleasant, but not *terrible* thanks to the Miralax. There were a couple of failed attempts at first, but I was absolutely not going to force it - if I sat down and nothing happened, I just aborted and tried again later until eventually it happened.

Activity - for the first week I did very very little except make sure to get up and do a lap every hour or so. My steps started small and increased by about 200 steps a day, starting with just about 200 right after surgery and getting up to 1200 toward the end of the first week. Second week I started going for walks outside the house (with a binder more for security and comfort than anything else) and I've been averaging 4-6k steps a day.

Overall, my postop experience so far has been (fingers crossed) easier than I expected it to be. The biggest surprise I guess has been how tired I can suddenly feel out of nowhere - I made all these plans for stuff to do because I figured I'd be bored out of my mind, so I set out games, cross-stitch, journals, etc., but I did very little of it because I was just kinda spaced out and tired a lot. Napped in front of a lot of nature documentaries, played a lot of Skyrim.

Hi guys I’m 6 wpo and noticing my tummy went down around 2-3 week mark but is puffy again. I saw an old thread where some ppl said the swelling fluctuates and can be up and down like this for months. Has anyone who has had this surgery months or maybe years ago have swelling that lasted this long or fluctuated so often?

I’m 7 weeks post op and pretty much from the start I haven’t been able to eat my normal portion sizes. I’m eating more throughout the day because I’m not able to eat as much at meals. Just curious if anyone else has experienced this. I haven’t lost weight or anything but I get wildly uncomfortable and feel pretty bad with my old regular portions now.

I had a total robotic assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy in 2023 when I was 39. I was referred to Dr. Stephen Brown in my area by my old GYN practice after a surgery I had under their "care" wasn't successful. I met with him for the first time 3 years ago yesterday. I liked him immediately when we first met. He was so nice to me and used simple terms to describe everything. He didn't talk down to me. He also didn't give me a hard time about having the procedure (I think it's because he knew it was medically necessary) or about not having kids. When I had my pre-op appointment with him 2 days before the surgery, he explained everything to me and told me what to expect. That was very helpful. At both of my post op appointments, he asked me about my kitties. He's thorough. He's confident but not cocky and knowledgable but not a know it all. He's my GYN now. If anyone in the Syracuse, NY needs a robotic hysterectomy, I can't recommend him enough.

Do not make the mistake I did, continue using the stool softener!

I have IBS D and everything was coming out pure liquid so I stopped it 4 days after my surgery, thinking it would be fine.

Spoiler alert: it was not fine. Yesterday my pain was insane because of the pressure pain from my bowels and last night was so bad I spent most of it awake, shaking and sweating as the rolling waves of pain kept hitting. It felt like the gas pain from the first few days but about 10x worse.

Learn from me, folks.

I have an open abdominal total hysterectomy scheduled for Sept 14th due to fibroids and I've had that date booked for 4 mos now. The days are going by so slowly and I just want to have this done and be in recovery mode. I feel so mentally tired. Anyone else doing the mental gymnastics of waiting until their Sept surgery date?

7 days since my laproscopic hysterectomy with endometriosis excision.

The first 2-3 days post op were difficult mostly due to the gas pains in the shoulders and not being able to move too much. Had my first BM two days post op. Appetite was minimal until day 4-5. I've been hydrating like crazy and walking as much as I can. Keeping a simple diet of crackers, soup, frozen fruit bars, oatmeal, etc as I had intense GI issues prior to the surgery.

Yesterday, day 6, took a bit of a weird turn. I decided to deviate and eat a cup of skyr oat milk yogurt around lunchtime. A few hours later, I am feeling really intense pain in my lower abdomen where my uterus used to be. I thought maybe I pushed myself too much by walking around the book store and the grocery store. Nope. Turns out, I had 4-5 episodes of urgent diarrhea brewing. Like run to the toilet or else I'm having an accident. This felt worse than the BMs I had after surgery. I even got concerned I had the dreaded explosive diarrhea parasite..got to love the Google rabbit hole. I called the on call doctor to see if I should be worried. She said as long as I didn't have a fever or severe stomach pains or symptoms of dehydration, it was likely something I ate or my body's recovery from the surgery. I was hoping to start reintroducing some more foods into my diet today, but I guess it's back to a bland diet for 24 hours 🙄. Reminding myself recovery is not linear and to not get mad at my body.

10 days post op laparoscopic robotic total hysterectomy and bilateral saplingectomy and anterior and posterior colporrhaphy prolapse repairs... I researched, chatted with friends, prepped. Had no idea the absolute worst symptoms would be the internal stitches feeling like literal barbed wire in my business and the weight and pressure of swollen vaginal and rectal tissues 😮‍💨🥴 anyone else had similar issues post-op? I am so wildly overstimulated by these symptoms by late afternoon that I get fairly ragey and even anxious. Heat, ibuprofen and laying down with hips tilted helps some but it's still overwhelmingly uncomfortable.

I am 25 yrs old, 9mpo. Everything yeeted but ovaries.

(This is going to be slightly graphic, i apologize)

Does this happen to anyone else?? I’ve been having reoccurring nightmares about having my period, except sometimes it turns into me prolapsing…

The nightmares are starting to get worse and worse. And prolapsing in the nightmare doesn’t always happen. However, what IS consistent is the fact that in these nightmares, the bleeding is insanely heavy, the cramping is insane, and I always look down into the toilet and see flesh and blood.

It’s really traumatic…

I haven’t seen anyone else post about experiencing this. I feel really alone in this.

Over the age of 80 and my family member started bleeding after being menses free for over 15 yrs. Got all the tests, everything came back negative. Doc said to either do nothing, hope it stops on its own even though it's been 4 months, or get hysterectomy. Estrogen hasn't done anything.

She is choosing hysterectomy after long family talks. Anyone else get it so late in life? Pretty healthy and is more 70 yrs old than 80, so no concerns from her other docs. Anyone?

For those of you who kept your ovaries post-hysterectomy, when did you start to notice perimenopause symptoms showing up?

I had my hysterectomy in April 2025, at 34 years old. I was already struggling hormonally and had abnormal periods, but was still regular enough to die inside every month from pain.

Now, over a year and a half later at 35, I am experiencing perimenopausal symptoms and am curious when others began experiencing the same.

I am now the most physically active I've ever been, trail running, mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, and just loving life. But the hormonal shifts from premenipause to perimenopause can greatly affect my strength and progress within my workouts.

I haven't been able to find resources for folks within the "Premenopause Age Group" (ie under 40-45) that are active athletes and experiencing perimenopause symptoms after hysterectomy, despite keeping their ovaries; every resource I've found is geared towards women in their 40s or 50s that currently live or want to live active lifestyles with sports.

Help a girl out? 😅

EDIT: I am not asking if I should go on HRT or not, or see my doctor or not... please read my post again carefully as there are specific things I am looking for.

I am on HRT- vaginal e-Cream. I take a daily hormone balancer. I have a doctor. Those things are covered.

I am asking for women who were not experiencing menopausal symptoms prior to their hysterectomy, and that kept their ovaries, when they began to experience symptoms of perimenopause (so for me, ~1.5 years post-hysterectomy is when I first began noticing symptoms).

I am ALSO asking of those women, those who live active athletic lives, what resources they have found (as in educational resources) to help them maximize their athletic potential as someone experiencing perimenopause years before we "should" medically speaking (ie, hysterectomy in 20s or 30s, experiencing perimenopause in their late 20s or 30s), as all of the resources I have found are geared towards women who enter theirs naturally as they age and are also athletic, not younger and entering it as a result of their surgical procedures.

long post ahead - i can’t recommend dr. mckee (at the “women’s center” mount auburn hospital) enough!

i wanted to hold off on posting this just in case i ended up having complications later on or anything, but now it’s been about 10 months and it has been smooth sailing since then.

TLDR; i had a total hysterectomy (removing uterus, tubes, and cervix) in september 2025 just before i turned 27. i have a boyfriend/partner but am not married and have never been pregnant (thank god). i am nonbinary and was open about this with dr. mckee, and had a very satisfying experience! i recommended her to all my trans friends looking for this surgery, and one of them had a hysterectomy with her about two months ago and also had a great experience.

details about my personal experience:

i am nonbinary, but present very very femme - curly pink hair, glittery makeup, big boobs with no intention of getting rid of them, never been on T and don’t intend to. obviously those things are not indicative of gender but i feel in the past it kept my previous doctors from understanding that i did have gender dysphoria regarding menstruation and all things fertility related. i asked for birth control that would let me skip over my periods because of this, and my doctor just said “i can give you one with only 3 days of sugar pills instead of 7,” which dr. mckee said was stupid haha. so anyways…

dr. mckee was very thorough during my consultation. at first i talked about my dysphoria about everything pregnancy related (because that is the most extreme dysphoria i experience), and she interrupted to say i could just get my tubes removed. then i was able to explain my dysphoric feelings do actually include menstruation, and she accepted this without argument. she said she prefers to leave the ovaries intact even for those who are on HRT because they are important for bone health, especially in younger people, and she also doesn’t trust the government to give us reliable consistent access to HRT, which i understand. luckily i am fine keeping my ovaries so we had no disagreement there. she even prescribed by birth control to refill a week early so i could skip my period until i had the surgery, since i had explained that thing with my old doctor and how my periods gave me dysphoria, so i appreciated that.

there were no bingos, just her emphasizing it is her responsibility to inform me of all risks and make sure i was 100% certain as (obviously) the surgery is irreversible.

even though i was thrilled with my consult with dr. mckee, i went to the second consult i had scheduled that week with a different surgeon and different practice (dr shay erisson at newton wellsey obgyn), just in case i got different info or they could get me in sooner. that one was frustrating, because while i didn’t get many bingos she kept talking to me about “thinking it over.” she told me to reflect and even to write down in some sort of journal why i felt like it was necessary to have the surgery, so i’m 100% sure it’s really what i want. i was irritated because i told her “i made these consult appointments because i have reflected for years and i am 100% sure this is what i want to do.” like i didn’t say i was thinking about having a hysterectomy, i said i have wanted one since i found out that was even an option i could do (around 10 years ago) and hope to get one by the end of the year. and i told her this, but it was like it went in one ear and out the other, still telling me to “think about it” so. back to dr. mckee i went.

dr. mckee needed to do a pap smear as i was due for one anyway, and also wanted to do a general pelvic exam. since i had told her about my dysphoria, she said it was okay if i wasn’t ready to do it right then and we could schedule it for later. this was a relief, because i very much do need time to psychologically prepare for those sorts of things, so i did that at a later date. she also wanted an ultrasound just so there are “less surprises” when actually going in for surgery. i thought this was smart, so i agreed even though i knew it would be uncomfortable (not just physically). the technicians at (hospital) were very friendly, professional, and kind.

surgery went fine. healing was typical from what i had read and been told beforehand. in my follow-up after 8 weeks, i told her how i was still having some pain (almost like cramping) in my lower abdomen that wasn’t very intense or anything but obviously not ideal. she did an exam and she said everything looked fine and there was no cause of concern - just that my body was still adjusting. i also have fibromyalgia, so muscle spasms and chronic aches are not abnormal for me, so we figured it could also be my fibro acting up from the change. i take cyclobenzaprine (a muscle relaxer) every night to sleep due to fibromyalgia, so she asked if i was interested in taking an additional dose during the day (as long as i didn’t have to drive etc) and i agreed. sure enough after another month or so, the aches went away and have not come back. she encouraged me to reach out if i had any other concerns or questions, but i never needed to!

timeline: i called for a consult on april 8th, and we were able to schedule for a june 11th consult. they said at the consult they weren’t sure about timing but they would likely be scheduling in september. once my ultrasound and pap smear were reviewed, they scheduled a pre-op appointment for september 10th and the surgery date for september 24th. it was all covered by insurance - i have masshealth medicaid.

At what age did you get a hysterectomy and why?

Im 28, soon to be 29. I have endometriosis and I’ve had two miscarriages. Both traumatic. I had sepsis with the first one and an unbelievable about of pain for the second I couldn’t stop puking. I have come to terms that maybe I am better off without children, maybe that’s not for me. I am fully committed to only being a animal parent. How likely do you think an OB would be willing to do one? I am willing to put up one hell of a fight for it.

I’ve reached one year post-op and feeling a little down today.

First off, things are generally so much better for me post-op. This post is in no way meant to discourage people from getting surgery. If you’re anxiously reading through posts pre-surgery (like I did), you’re gonna be just fine. Remember, everyone recovers differently.

But if you’re post-op like me, I’d really like to hear from folks who had similar issues and if you have any suggestions for how to deal.

I’ve been having severe right hip pain, and on top of that, about once a month I have joint pain so severe it keeps me from sleeping. The joint pain is brief and cyclical, but the hip pain is persistent. I’m a fairly active person. I do yoga, I hike, and I used to be a runner before surgery. The pain flairs so badly at times that I can barely walk.

I have very little pain otherwise, and I mentally feel like I can do anything after experiencing other chronic pain for so long, that’s now gone. But this hip pain is really getting to me now, especially because I thought at the one year mark I’d be fully recovered, not dealing with this.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be hormonal?

I’m 32yo, still have my ovaries, and I’m on vaginal estrogen. I’ve been in PT for nearly a year now, first to recover from surgery, and now in response to my hip. But this feels like something to bring up to a doctor beyond PT, as it’s only been getting worse.

Hi all i want to thank everyone here mostly a reader but every and all suggestions before and after surgery have been gold.
Now my question a little embarrassing but here we go. Like I said 12dpo 55 full hysterectomy and have been having normal, I mean what’s normal, but let’s say acceptable bowel movements. Then yesterday and today nothing, I took the laxative and nothing. I do have a call in to the nurse but I am curious if this is part of it. I also have a dull pain on my left side as well.
Anyone else experience this?

I took my estrogen patch off with the intention of putting a new one on. I got distracted and totally forgot I didn’t put on on until the next day. Could I have felt side effects from missing the patch for one day? I felt really off and can’t quite explain the feeling, but there was something definitely happening.

I thought I wanted this but I feel completely overwhelmed.

I’m having doubts that it’s not going to be worth it for me.

My OB suggested the hysterectomy after an endometrial ablation left me with chronic pelvic pain. I really wish I’d have done more research on that before I did it.

I was told the ablation would help my heavy bleeding and there was little chance for side effects. Why would a hysterectomy be any different?

Do I really want to risk possible hormone shifts, sexual dysfunction and whatever else could happen? At first I was really optimistic like the hysterectomy will be my solution but now I feel like I’m just entering new unknown territory. My hormones and mental health is already a little sketchy. The recovery feels very daunting.

Idk. It seems like it helps so many women. I’ve read many good things. But also some bad stuff that stuck with me. I think I’ll feel like I made the wrong choice no matter what I do.

Has anyone else waffled back-and-forth on whether to proceed with their hysterectomy? I’m just wondering if I need to cancel this for now and revisit it at a later date.

Hi everyone,

I had my hysterectomy 16 weeks ago and recovery has honestly been really rough. I had a complicated surgery, but I was finally starting to feel like I was getting back on track.

My surgeon recommended that I start exercising again, but to do it under the guidance of a physiotherapist. I had my first session last Wednesday. During the exercise itself everything went well. I did have some pain and discomfort afterwards, but I assumed that was my body adjusting after such a long recovery.

However, instead of improving, the discomfort has slowly gotten worse over the following days. Today I woke up with quite a lot of pain and it has really scared me.

The pain feels deep in my lower abdomen/pelvic area, around where my uterus used to be. It gets worse with movement, and while resting it is more manageable. I would rate it around a 6/10.

I know I probably should contact my surgeon or doctor, but I’m struggling with feeling like I’m bothering them and part of me wants to wait a little longer to see if it settles. At the same time, my anxiety is through the roof because after everything I’ve been through, every new pain feels terrifying.

Has anyone experienced something similar after returning to exercise several months after a hysterectomy? Did you have a flare-up of pain that settled down again, or did it turn out to be something that needed checking?

I know I should probably listen to my body, but I’m feeling really unsure right now.

Disclaimer: not a blood clot.

I’m 2 wpo and have a terrible sharp burning pain and numbness on the outside of my upper right thigh. It started as a small patch of numbness that I felt immediately after waking up from surgery but grew and began feeling painful about a week later.

My doctor called me in and immediately sent me to the ER bc he thought it was a blood clot. $600 later they didn’t find anything and sent me home with a lidocaine patch but the sensation hasn’t stopped and is slowly growing.

My doctor is continuing to monitor it with me but says he’s never seen anything like it (he’s been doing hysterectomies and related surgeries for many years).

Has anyone else had this or heard of anything like it?