Hysterectomy scheduled-to keep or not keep my ovaries?

JJOntario

Hi Everyone,

I've been going through a whirlwind lately. A large pelvic mass was found in early January. Since then I've had an US and MRI. Everyone was kind of jumpy but it appears to be a really big 11 cm fibroid. Total hysterectomy booked for April 15th. My BC was estrogen fed and now I'm so ??? about removing my ovaries. I'm nervous of being thrown into instant menopause and also nervous about losing them and dealing with a higher risk of heart disease and bone loss. I write this while I'm waiting for my breast biopsy results for some calcifications on my BC breast cancer breast. It's so hard to decide what to do!!

Lvbugs

I was in the same boat as you. I am 45 and kept one ovary. I was told prior to knowing I needed a hysterectomy that ovary removal would not change the percentage rate of recurrance by that much and so MO said not recommended. MO and Gyn both said that ovary removal could cause heart and bone health issues. So talk to your doctors to get all the information to make this decision.

I am happy with me having a hysterectomy and don't miss the pelvic and back pain from the large 9 & 5 cm fibroids.

Good luck to you!

slv58

I was in a somewhat similar situation- at least the trying to decide if I should get an oophorectomy. I had a cyst on my ovary that was being watched for a year. It had a thin septation and wasn't considered to be malignant but because of my aggressive breast cancer I was told that if it worried me they could b taken out. I am 57 (menopausal) and had been advised by my gyno that the loss of the very small amount of estrogen and androgen did not have much impact on heart/bone health. She said the Parker study was done on a small number of women and that the greatest impact was on younger women. The main reason I went ahead with it was that I had 4 vaginal ultrasounds to monitor the cyst. One came back an ovarian cyst- one came back a Fallopian tube cyst and the next two came back ovarian cyst. My question to my gyno was ' if vaginal ultrasound is the best way to check for the illusive ovarian cancer, and my results can't tell the difference between an ovarian cyst and fallopian cyst, how am I suppose to feel confident that something else isn't being missed or not interpreted correctly' - she offered me the surgery. Still waiting pathology but I feel I did the correct thing- in my case.

BrooksideVT

I'm in a bit of a different situation, as I was post-menopausal when I had my hysterectomy. The surgeon recommended removing my ovaries, not only because they were then pretty non-functional, but more importantly, because ovarian cancer is nasty and often discovered rather late in the game. I decided to just ask him to take a good look at the ovaries and, if they were OK (they were), I'd keep them. Less than a year later, I discovered I had bc. My understanding is that bc somewhat raises my risk of ovarian cancer and I now wish I'd had the things yanked.

If I'd been pre-menopausal, I don't know what I'd have done. No right answer, no wrong answer.

JJOntario

I'm thinking I need my MO to weigh in on this...when I had my BC surgery I went into ittotally rushed, ill informed and trusting. I just really want to make sure I'm doing this one right... Thanks so much everyone for sharing!!!