Hysterectomy at 30. What will my life be like?

[ManonCrochan]

I have horrific birth Injuries which have left me in a wheelchair. I'm waiting for surgery and need to have a vaginal hysterectomy.

Also, during the same operation: An anterior vaginal wall repair, a posterior vaginal wall repair and a vaginal sacrospinous fixation.

I'm only 30 years old. Has anyone undergone similar and how has it affected your life?

I don't have any experience of this but couldn't just read your post and not comment - what happened to you sounds so traumatic. So sorry you're going through this.

Hopefully someone will offer you some practical advice.

I don't have experience of this but would ask your health team if they know of any support groups for women who have had hysterectomies at young age. I presume this means you will go into menopause? If so, I would also recommend reading up on going into menopause due to this, Newson has a bit in her book Preparing for the Perimenopause and Menopause for cancer patients. You may want to post on the menopause board on this site to see if anyone on there has experienced anything similar

So sorry OP, that sounds really traumatic. I would be seeking out mental health support if I were in your situation. I am sure there are birth trauma support groups. Can your health visitor/ midwife put you in the direction of support?

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I'm so sorry to hear this. I am 31 and had a hysterectomy back in October, though mine was due to severe adhesions, fibroids, endometriosis and adenomyosis which couldn't be treated medically rather than post birth complications. I had to have open surgery and required a urinary catheter for 7 weeks due to bladder complications, so the surgery itself was pretty severe but I woke up from the anaesthetic in less pain than I had been before going under and apart from the catheter feeling like awful cystitis the wound gave me no bother after the first few days. I'm now hugely better than I was before, no stabbing abdominal pain, and amazingly I have a concurrent condition that used to cause dislocations/subluxations 8-9 times a day on bad days, now I haven't dislocated for 6 weeks as the hormones have settled down. It's given me my life back.

Good Lord. You poor thing.

Your mood must be so low. There is a long running birth injuries thread on here I will see if I can find it and post it.

What kind of support do you have at home?

I know those operations. They cured me of my birth trauma issues many years after giving birth. I have had vaginal mesh repairs front and back, and a TVT mesh sling for urinary incontinence, Also a Ventral Mesh rectopexy (for rectal prolapse) which is similar to the sacrospinous fixation.
My SIL had a hysterectomy, bladder repair of some sort and the sacrospinous fixation, which cured her problems.

Are you in a wheelchair solely as a result of the need for these surgeries? Or were you already in a wheelchair for some other reason?

My short answer is that these surgeries restored my pelvic area and improved my life. I am fine now.

Is the hysterectomy absolutely necessary? I had a partial hysterectomy (kept cervix and ovaries at my insistence - I had to change consultants for that) and in hindsight the hysterectomy wasn't necessary as once the rectal prolapse was secured my womb would have been fine, except I had the hysterectomy first. Also, the TVT sling for urinary incontinence - if they had done the rectal prolapse repair first, I wouldn't have needed the TVT sling.

Basically the gyny and urinary consultants tried everything, except in the wrong order as it turned out all my issues were due to the rectal prolapse which was the last thing to be diagnosed, and then only for certain after investigation under general anaesthetic by a specialist bowel surgeon (which I sought out privately).