Hysterectomy and oophyrectomy - Can't take estrogen therapy

From your cute photo, I would say you are way too young to be so worn out! I assume you had a genetic mutation or another reason for that much surgery. Are you also performing a full time job, managing a household and/or chasing kids around? Plus, the holidays are upon us. These are just a few of the factors that can work together to multiply the stress we feel.

All that being said, your primary care doctor will certainly want to make sure you're not anemic (perhaps that's the reason for the cyanocobalamin injections), show low vitamin D levels or have hypothyroidism. In addition, these short days & lack of natural light put many of us into a seasonal affective disorder. Perhaps a low dose of a mild anti-depressant medication might do the trick. Getting fresh air and exercise helps me. Hope you perk up soon...

I am so glad to find this thread and hope to see many more responses! I am 49 and just had to have a TAH/BSO on 12/1...so am technically in surgical menopause. It's only been two weeks and while I don't really feel much different now, reading about all the potential downstream effects are really scary. I did meet with my breast specialist to discuss options should I need them and was reassured by his common sense approach: he said a vaginal ring like estrace (BHRT) could be used without too much concern of it crossing into the bloodstream and that any that did...would be handled by the tamoxifen that I take. He also indicated that at some point, quality of life has to be considered, so told me not to suffer but to talk to him if/when the need arises. Boy, it seems there are major risk both with and without...so my line of thought at this point is that I might as well feel as decent as possible while I'm here. Of course, this is still early for me, but I hope some women who have walked this path before us might share their wisdom. Good luck to you and I hope you feel better soon! I work similar hours but my boys are now grown (27,25,23), but I well recall their younger years and think I remained chronically exhausted! I also have to take B12 injections.

I'm about 10-15 years older than you two and became menopausal with chemo so not exactly in your same situations but will suggest that being kind to yourself is a good idea at any age! That includes consuming a healthy diet and taking time for enjoyable activities.

Try some different things, eliminate others which are not essential and know that you are certainly not alone. I even allowed myself to not put up a big Christmas tree which is unusual (in the past I have done two or three). Perhaps the doctor will have a few practical ideas also.

I also just came across this thread. I am scheduled to have my ovaries out from an cancer scare on March 3. I am freaking at the thought of surgical menopause and hope others who have been down the road can provide some tips. My GYN said there are a few herbal things I can try, I was hoping I could take low dose HRT to sort of wean myself off of the hormones but I guess not. 

I will be taken off of Tamoxifen a month after surgery so not sure what to think of that either as I will be put on one of the A1's. 

Life- grrrrr

ndgrrl, my recovery from the hysterectomy was a piece of cake...I was back to running at 6 weeks when I got the okay. Also, just FYI, I did stay on Tamoxifen. Since I was doing fine on it and have osteopenia... I didn't want to switch to the AI's. My MO was fine with that. Switching to AI's is not an absolute requirement. Obviously discuss with your MO.

Jill47, I am quite angry at your doc for telling you that you will feel horrible for 10-15 years. First of all, he has no way of knowing that, and secondly, that was not the case for me. I had the ooph/hyster, also at 48, then started femara, which makes the effect and estrogen deprivation worse. It was not fun for a while, but it slowly got better and now, 3 years after starting femara, I really feel pretty well most of the time.

Exercise and a decent diet can help, btw, against many of the unpleasant side effects.