About 3 years ago I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids. What are uterine fibroids? Uterine fibroids are benign tumors that grow in the muscle wall in the uterus and made of fibrous tissue. Fibroids also love estrogen and feed off of the estrogen in your blood. How did I find out? Well, I didn’t have any pain, I had some heavy bleeding, and my abdomen protruded out and I could feel that it was hard. I went to the Doctor because I thought that I had a hernia or maybe a cancerous growth.
My GM examined my abdomen and told me that it was probably uterine fibroids. He didn’t seem too concerned when he told me that, but he wrote an order to get an ultrasound. I was scared, so I asked him what should I do about this? He responded by telling me that some women don’t do anything if they aren’t having problems, some have hysterectomies, and others have other things done. He also told me that most of the time the fibroids weren’t cancerous. I didn’t like the idea that my abdomen was protruding outward so I decided that if I had uterine fibroids then I would have it or them removed.
Well the ultrasound confirmed that I had 8 fibroids and 2 were the size of a grapefruit. I wanted them gone ASAP! At the time I was teaching school, but it was getting near the end of the year, so I went to see the surgeon. The OBGYN was a male, a very cold male. Most of my doctors in the past have been males, and I have never had a problem with them. But this one was very cold! First he looks at my chart and he mumbles that I am 43 years old. Next he asked me if I had any children and I told him that I had 2. Then he said well you probably won’t be having any more so the best thing to do is a total abdominal hysterectomy, which involved: removing my uterus, cervix, and ovaries. After hearing that I tried to make a joke by telling him that he might as well do a double mastectomy since I don’t plan on having anymore children, then I guess that I don’t need my breasts anymore either. He didn’t crack a smile he just gave me this weird look. The office went ahead and scheduled the procedure for 2 weeks after school ended. At this point I hadn’t even told my husband about scheduling the hysterectomy or anything.
Next I received a phone call from the nurse from the insurance company to go over everything and to make sure that I was aware of exactly what a hysterectomy entailed. She was very detailed. I spoke with her for over an hour. When I got off of the phone I requested a second opinion and that was the best thing that I ever did. I made an appointment with this lady OBGYN that was new to the network and in her mid-50’s. I told her about my visit with the other doctor, and she was appalled. She gave me so many options besides a hysterectomy. The only thing that she and the other doctor agreed upon was that I had 8 fibroids and 2 were about the size of a grapefruit.
What did I finally decide to do? I went the natural route. The reason that I went that route is because I found out that my fibroids came from what is called an estrogen dominance disorder. That is when there is too much estrogen in your system. Where does estrogen come from? Estrogen comes from a lot of places and fat is one of the places. I started going to a Naturalist, which the insurance didn’t cover. I took herbs, started eating raw, mostly organic and all natural food. I removed processed foods completely and I also used the progesterone and testosterone creams as prescribed. Within about 3 months I could really notice my abdomen going back to flat.
The strange thing about this whole thing is that I was never considered unhealthy or fat before I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids. Now I feel as if I am in excellent shape. If you have been diagnosed with uterine fibroids, please get a second opinion. From my female OBGYN I learned that you can naturally shrink uterine fibroids. Even if you Google "uterine fibroids", you can find all kinds of herbs (that really work) and procedures other than getting an unnecessary hysterectomy.
Will having a hysterectomy affect your sex life? Since I have never had a hysterectomy I can’t answer that, but being a nursing student and thinking about the parts of the female reproductive system that is involved, my educated guess would be yes. When I asked the male OBGYN that same question he said that there is no reason why having a hysterectomy would change anything. This guy must have thought that I was some kind of idiot. When I asked my female OBGYN she said ”I have never had a hysterectomy and I can only go by what others have told me. Some women appear to have no sex drive even with medications and hormones, and sex is never the same; some women just say that sex is different or it doesn’t feel the same; other women say that they don’t notice a difference; and others say that it is better." She also told me that if I really wanted a hysterectomy to discuss it with my husband and make sure that I do plenty of research to educate myself; because of the parts of the female reproductive system involved, a person would be wise to expect changes. When I told several of my friends that I was thinking about having a hysterectomy, one of my girlfriends who had had a hysterectomy told me that it was the worst thing that she could have done. I guess having a hysterectomy is a personal choice but if you are ever faced with that decision I just encourage all to do research on it first.
