Hi Melissa, yes to both of your questions, my first reply was to Rosa, and yes I underwent a hysterectomy when I was 36 years old. At the time I was a research assistant at the U of Pennsylvania. I got five opinions that agreed on a diagnosis, which turned out to be wrong, and I asked good questions, but I had no way of knowing that the answers I received were wrong. If there is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy, I would have been fine. I believed what doctors told me, and I expected to be not only the same, but to be better because I would be free of my debilitating extremely heavy bleeding and moderate pain. After the surgery when I experienced many unexpected physical changes, including the loss of physical sexual sensation and loss of uterine orgasm, I realized that could not be the only woman experiencing these dramatic changes. The mother of three young children, working full time and going to school full time in the evening, I realized that to do the research necessary to find out why i was experiencing many life altering changes, I needed to quit my job and school and devote my full time and attention to researching the medical literature. I spent every day for two years at the U of P medical library, and read every medical journal article and textbook about hysterectomy. I was astonished to find that what I was experiencing was common, and was well documented in medical literature as long as a century ago. Yet not one doctor acknowledged that what I was experiencing was common and expected. I could not undo my surgery, but I knew that what I had learned could help other women become fully informed if hysterectomy was recommended to them. I established the Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services (HERS) Foundation, which has counseled over 900,000 women. Every woman has a right to know before she signs a form consenting to hysterectomy what the consequences of the surgery are. If you have not already done so, watch the short video "Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs" at hersfoundation.org/anatomy.
The heavy bleeding with blood clots are typical of submucosal fibroids. Has an ultrasound shown if you have fibroids?
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Hi Melissa, yes to both of your questions, my first reply was to Rosa, and yes I underwent a hysterectomy when I was 36 years old. At the time I was a research assistant at the U of Pennsylvania. I got five opinions that agreed on a diagnosis, which turned out to be wrong, and I asked good questions, but I had no way of knowing that the answers I received were wrong. If there is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy, I would have been fine. I believed what doctors told me, and I expected to be not only the same, but to be better because I would be free of my debilitating extremely heavy bleeding and moderate pain. After the surgery when I experienced many unexpected physical changes, including the loss of physical sexual sensation and loss of uterine orgasm, I realized that could not be the only woman experiencing these dramatic changes. The mother of three young children, working full time and going to school full time in the evening, I realized that to do the research necessary to find out why i was experiencing many life altering changes, I needed to quit my job and school and devote my full time and attention to researching the medical literature. I spent every day for two years at the U of P medical library, and read every medical journal article and textbook about hysterectomy. I was astonished to find that what I was experiencing was common, and was well documented in medical literature as long as a century ago. Yet not one doctor acknowledged that what I was experiencing was common and expected. I could not undo my surgery, but I knew that what I had learned could help other women become fully informed if hysterectomy was recommended to them. I established the Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services (HERS) Foundation, which has counseled over 900,000 women. Every woman has a right to know before she signs a form consenting to hysterectomy what the consequences of the surgery are. If you have not already done so, watch the short video "Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs" at hersfoundation.org/anatomy.
The heavy bleeding with blood clots are typical of submucosal fibroids. Has an ultrasound shown if you have fibroids?
June 16, 2011 - 9:46amThis Comment
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