The Truth About Menopause After Hysterectomy

The effect of menopause after hysterectomy can have some devastating consequences for a woman particularly if she's not conditioned mentally to the onset of menopause symptoms.

In essence, women are dealing with two emotions here, especially if they are still at a recommended child bearing age. The emotion of not being able to bear children will be bad enough but then having to put up with symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats and depression can test anyone's mettle.

Menopause After Hysterectomy

Some of the reasons a hysterectomy will need to be performed include intolerable menstrual periods, serious medical conditions, family history and uterus issues which cannot be controlled by medical treatments.

There are two procedures; partial or total. A partial procedure involves removing the uterus but not the cervix while a total procedure will involve the removal of both. At the same time, the ovaries may also be removed.

The Ovaries

One of the complex issues with leaving the ovaries behind after hysterectomy is a woman can suffer the symptoms of menopause up until normal menopause age due to normal ovary production. This can be a frightening prospect considering fluctuating hormones can still cause pre menstrual activity but without the periods.

Then again, by completely removing the ovaries will diminish the natural ovarian production bringing on the full onset of menopause symptoms. This can occur just a few days after the procedure.

Other risk factors include the prospect of estrogen deficiencies because the ovaries could either completely stop hormone production without notice or they may end their hormone production sooner than anticipated. Osteoporosis issues are then enhanced.

There's no doubt menopause after hysterectomy is a complicated issue and one which many women will avoid having to go through. This article is not meant to alarm you in any way but just to highlight some of those issues.

The outcome of hysterectomy is complex because of the unpredictable scenarios which are presented. The bright side is women should experience their menopause for a shorter period of time than those who go through it naturally.

If you have questions about menopause after hysterectomy then you should speak to your physician about them. Ovary retention or removal should definitely be discussed at great length. n