Hysterectomy at 40, anyone done this? Stories please, good and bad.

[SquarePeggyLeggy]

I have endometriosis, adenomyosis, prolapse, and 3 kids. Very very heavy bleeding and anaemia. So, Dr has recommended hysterectomy with leaving the ovaries.
I don’t know what to do, I’m suffering and it’s very tempting. I feel a slight inexplicable sadness, and I’m very frightened by googling long term side effects. HOWEVER, I’m suffering half the time anyway, so this can’t go on.
I have a one year old, being surgically menopausal so soon afterwards is confronting.
Please help me with your experience! How did it go, good and bad experiences welcome.
I’ve booked the surgery but Dr said I can back out. I’ve just started with the Mirena, I think it’s going well so far, it’s really helping keep my mood on an even keel, I suffer from awful PMS. But due to the prolapse, I can feel it and it’s poking me TMI. So I don’t know...

I also haven’t experienced a mirena period yet so can’t judge on that front.

Bumping up because posted at bad time

I had a hysterectomy at 39. Best thing ever. I had 2 kids and because of fertility problems , seemed unlikely to have more. So my womb was serving no purpose except to make my life miserable. Only felt well one week in four. PMT , then extremely heavy periods , when finished I felt so weak from blood loss.
Op was simple , recovered very quickly. HRT to counteract early menopause. No problems and that was 20 years ago.

Thank you, did the early menopause hit you hard?

And your PMT was improved? Mine is so severe, I worry about making it worse.

If you are keeping your ovaries, you won't go into menopause straightaway.
I had the same operation at 41, recovery was slow but very straightforward and my life was hugely improved by having the op.

I'm now 49 and starting to have menopause symptoms but they're manageable with a good diet, supplements etc

Is there anything else you're worried about? I'm happy to help, I remember being incredibly nervous prior to mine!

I had one at 42 and it was life-changing in a good way - I had endo and adenomyosis like you. I had my ovaries out too, so I swapped PMS for menopause. But I would have had to go through menopause at some point anyway and four years on, I rarely have symptoms though they were very harsh at first.
It can only help your PMS not to have actual periods for your body to cope with, but if you are keeping your ovaries you will still have a monthly cycle, just no periods (your ovaries are likely to stop working sooner than they would if you kept your womb, though). Getting rid of your heavy periods and all the pain should make everything so much easier to cope with even if you do still have a degree of PMS.

@SquarePeggyLeggy . I too kept ovaries and only took HRT because you experience menopause earlier . No problems at all with it. And PMS vastly improved because I was so much better and not worn out from all my horrible symptoms.

Thank you!
Things I’m nervous about:
Recovery
Sadness at making myself infertile (even though I am done with children, this is irrational)
Impact on sex, both desire and sensation
Still having PMS each month even with no periods
Weight gain
Other organ prolapse with no uterus there

The plan is to do a stitch at the top to pull everything back into place.

What I’m hoping for:
Being able to swim!
Not having life impacted or planned around my periods.
Contraception
Recovery! Listed twice because I’ve spent two weeks utterly exhausted after a straight forward laparoscopy and d and c to address the endo short term.

Thanks so much!

Should say: “quick recovery”.

I understand the sadness about infertility, I felt I mourned the removal of my womb, it was the place I grew my babies and I felt sad for a little while!
The pms is so much better without the agony of heavy periods, cramps etc!
Sex is actually way better, although obviously you can't do it for a while! Not worrying about contraception is liberating and I've definitely had no loss of sensation but I too worried about that prior to my op.
I didn't gain any weight, in fact I lost a little and looked way too skinny post op.
My scar is fairly big as I had a huge fibroid and do have a little ridge/bulge but nobody apart from myself and dh would know it's there.

To those who kept ovaries but started hrt post op, have I been misinformed? I've never been offered hrt and I'm 7 years post op!

Thank you so much! Nothing about HRT was mentioned at my appointment but I’ve read the ovaries stop working due to lessened blood flow.