ovaries removed

lamuso

Did many of you gals have your ovaries removed along with your breast(s)?  I am hormone positive and my oncologist says it isn't necessary but I have a couple friends that had them taken.  In fact, one had a total hysterectomy.  I would think the less hormones in my body the less chance for spread so why wouldn't I want them taken?

konakat

Hi Leslie,

At first I had Zolodex to suppress my ovaries and took Tamoxifin -- I'm very strong ER+.  That seems to be the first thing the oncs consider, but it was suggested right from the start to have them out, but I was sick and tired of surgery at the time.  They were OK with that.

For some reason the tamox didn't work well enough for me and was one of the reasons the cancer came back.  So I had my ovaries out last Dec.  What was interesting was that since I've had my ovaries out, I have very few hot flashes.  Perhaps, since my ovaries were surpressed chemically for about 8 months before getting them removed, my body might have been used to not having much estrogen.  In any case, I wish I had them removed right from the start.  I didn 't need them, they were causing problems, so taken 'em out!

Since you are ER+ the docs will probably do some sort of hormonal supression as part of your treatment.  I vote for getting the ovaries out.  That's just me -- you will get lots of opinions on this, both for and against.  If you do decide to postpone doing it, the operation is very easy -- it's done laparscopically, minimal pain and downtime.

hrf

I am BRCA2+ so had my ovaries and tubes out following my first dx of bc......surprisingly, my

2nd dx - several years later is ES+/PR+ while my first was TN......go figure

momofbraj

I had my ovaries removed when I found out I was a poor metabolizer of tamoxifen.  I appear to have benefitted a lot from the procedure as my tumor markers began to decline shortly after the procedure.