Hysterectomy should i have my cervix removed

Your doctor may also remove your fallopian tubes and ovaries. After a hysterectomy, you no longer have menstrual periods and cannot become pregnant.

Hysterectomy is a surgery to remove a woman's uterus her womb. The whole uterus is usually removed. Your doctor also may remove your fallopian tubes and ovaries. Talk to your doctor before your surgery to discuss your options. For example, if both ovaries are removed, you will have symptoms of menopause.

Ask your doctor about the risks and benefits of removing your ovaries. You may also be able to try an alternative to hysterectomy , such as medicine or another type of treatment, first. You may need a hysterectomy if you have one of the following: 1. Keep in mind that there may be alternative ways to treat your health problem without having a hysterectomy.

Hysterectomy is a major surgery. Talk with your doctor about all of your treatment options. Hysterectomy is major surgery. Sometimes a hysterectomy may be medically necessary, such as with prolonged heavy bleeding or certain types of cancer. But sometimes you can try other treatments first.

These include:. Each year in the United States, nearly , women get hysterectomies. The most common surgery in women is childbirth by cesarean delivery C-section. Whether your ovaries are removed during the hysterectomy may depend on the reason for your hysterectomy. Ovaries may be removed during hysterectomy to lower the risk for ovarian cancer. However, women who have not yet gone through menopause also lose the protection of estrogen, which helps protect women from conditions such as heart disease and osteoporosis.

Recent studies suggest that removing only the fallopian tubes but keeping the ovaries may help lower the risk for the most common type of ovarian cancer, which is believed to start in the fallopian tubes. The decision to keep or remove your ovaries is one you can make after talking about the risks and benefits with your doctor.

All women who have a hysterectomy will stop getting their period. Whether you will have other symptoms of menopause after a hysterectomy depends on whether your doctor removes your ovaries during the surgery.

If you keep your ovaries during the hysterectomy , you should not have other menopausal symptoms right away. But you may have symptoms a few years younger than the average age for menopause 52 years. Because your uterus is removed, you no longer have periods and cannot get pregnant. But your ovaries might still make hormones, so you might not have other signs of menopause. You may have hot flashes, a symptom of menopause, because the surgery may have blocked blood flow to the ovaries.

This can prevent the ovaries from releasing estrogen. If both ovaries are removed during the hysterectomy , you will no longer have periods and you may have other menopausal symptoms right away. Because your hormone levels drop quickly without ovaries, your symptoms may be stronger than with natural menopause.

Ask your doctor about ways to manage your symptoms. A hysterectomy can be done in several different ways. It will depend on your health history and the reason for your surgery. Talk to your doctor about the different options:. Recovering from a hysterectomy takes time.

Most women stay in the hospital one to two days after surgery. Some doctors may send you home the same day of your surgery. Some women stay in the hospital longer, often when the hysterectomy is done because of cancer.

Your doctor will likely have you get up and move around as soon as possible after your hysterectomy. This includes going to the bathroom on your own. However, you may have to pee through a thin tube called a catheter for one or two days after your surgery. You should get plenty of rest and not lift heavy objects for four to six weeks after surgery.

At that time, you should be able to take tub baths and resume sexual intercourse. How long it takes for you to recover will depend on your surgery and your health before the surgery. Talk to your doctor. Hysterectomy is a major surgery, so recovery can take a few weeks. But for most women, the biggest change is a better quality of life. You should have relief from the symptoms that made the surgery necessary. It might. If you had a good sex life before your hysterectomy, you should be able to return to it without any problems after recovery.

Many women report a better sex life after hysterectomy because of relief from pain or heavy vaginal bleeding. If your hysterectomy causes you to have symptoms of menopause, you may experience vaginal dryness or a lack of interest in sex. Using a water-based lubricant can help with dryness.

Talk to your partner and try to allow more time to get aroused during sex. Talk with your doctor and get more tips in our Menopause and sexuality section. You will still need regular Pap tests or Pap smear to screen for cervical cancer if you:. Dating back more than 4, years , hysterectomy was used as a treatment for women with "hysteria" — a broad diagnosis that covered symptoms like anxiety and depression.

Now hysterectomy is one of many options if you have fibroids noncancerous tumors , excessively heavy periods , or uterine prolapse a dropped uterus. Hysterectomy may be a real medical necessity, not simply another option, if you have invasive cancer of the reproductive organs — the uterus, cervix, vagina , fallopian tubes, or ovaries.

A partial hysterectomy is surgical removal of the uterus alone, and a myomectomy is removal of only fibroids. A total hysterectomy removes the cervix as well as the uterus. In certain cancer cases, the upper vagina is also taken out.

This surgery is called radical hysterectomy , and is extremely rare. Unless you ask, certain crucial and highly sensitive topics may not come up when you discuss hysterectomy pros and cons with your doctor. So speak up and get specific. Find out what a hysterectomy could mean for your sex life, your hormones, and your future. How soon you can have sex after a hysterectomy really depends on the type of hysterectomy: partial, total, or radical.

But if your cervix was removed, it takes about six weeks for the back of the vagina to heal. What doctors usually mean is vaginal intercourse. Orgasm may be fine, oral sex too, and vibrator use as well — your questions need to be specific.

Department of Health and Human Services. And of the many treatment options which include pain medications and hormone therapies , hysterectomy with removal of the ovaries is not a first-line treatment. Conservative surgery using a minimally invasive method may be one option, and will preserve the uterus.

The myth about hysterectomy Streicher hears most often in her medical practice is that a woman will go into menopause afterward. During surgery, your doctor may remove one or both ovaries and your fallopian tubes, as well as your uterus. Ovaries are the source of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. The extent of a hysterectomy varies depending on the reason for the surgery.

In most cases, the entire uterus is removed. The doctor may also remove the ovaries and the fallopian tubes during the procedure. The ovaries are the organs that produce estrogen and other hormones. The fallopian tubes are the structures that transport the egg from the ovary to the uterus. However, a hysterectomy may not be the best option for all women.

Luckily, many conditions that can be treated with a hysterectomy may also be treated in other ways. For instance, hormone therapy can be used to treat endometriosis. Fibroids can be treated with other types of surgery that spare the uterus.

In some circumstances, however, a hysterectomy is clearly the best choice. You and your doctor can discuss your options and determine the best choice for your specific condition.

During a partial hysterectomy, your doctor removes only a portion of your uterus. They may leave your cervix intact. During a total hysterectomy, your doctor removes the entire uterus, including the cervix. However, you should continue to have regular pelvic examinations.

During a hysterectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy , your doctor removes the uterus along with one or both of your ovaries and fallopian tubes.

You may need hormone replacement therapy if both of your ovaries are removed. A hysterectomy can be performed in several ways. All methods require a general or local anesthetic. This type of anesthetic will sometimes be combined with a sedative, which will help you feel sleepy and relaxed during the procedure.

During an abdominal hysterectomy, your doctor removes your uterus through a large cut in your abdomen. The incision may be vertical or horizontal. Both types of incisions tend to heal well and leave little scaring. During a vaginal hysterectomy , your uterus is removed through a small incision made inside the vagina. During a laparoscopic hysterectomy, your doctor uses a tiny instrument called a laparoscope.

A laparoscope is a long, thin tube with a high-intensity light and a high-resolution camera at the front. The instrument is inserted through incisions in the abdomen. Three or four small incisions are made instead of one large incision.