With yet another school cancellation due to inclement weather I had the opportunity to watch an episode of Dr. Oz. He usually has very interesting but short segments. Today though was "The Number One Surgery Women Don't Need: Hysterectomy." It primarily focused on those women who were suffering from fibroids. This was of great interest to me considering I've been torn over whether or not to have a hysterectomy myself. I have two very close friends (close in age as well) who have opted to have the surgery and so far one is very happy with her decision. The other, well it's too soon to tell as she had the surgery just a little over a month ago. It is amazing to me how doctors are making a hysterectomy their first choice and not the last resort.
Facing the decision myself, I did extensive research on other options. I was disappointed that Dr. Oz didn't go into more of the other options available to women. He suggested one medical option and then went into some herbal teas and ibuprofen. While I agree ibuprofen helps with some pain associated with fibroids there are times that it just doesn't cut it. I've battled with the pain for so many years that my tolerance is pretty high. I have been prescribed Mefenam Acid, which helps tremendously.
I was surprised to hear that a myomectomy was one of the worst surgeries to have. I have had one to remove a fibroid which was in my uterine wall. Come to find out this type of surgery causes a lot of scar tissue....which is part of my problem as well. I have endometriosis as well as adenomyosis. All of the aforementioned coupled with fibroids has been the reason I have studied my other options extensively. I found an excellent GYN who was against the idea of a hysterectomy and we discussed other options and although the choice was difficult I opted to go with Lupron shots and Norethindrone (Add-Back Therapy) for a period of 6 months to reduce the fibroids.
Three months into this treatment and I was a basketcase. While this treatment effects everyone differently, my experience was the same as most of the horror stories I read on a site that I found dedicated to "help" other patients. I had every possible side effect associated with this medication. I suffered from insomnia, memory loss, couldn't remain focused on anything, mood swings, muscle pain, skin rash, hair loss, and the list goes on and on. The side effects caused many problems for me in my personal life. I was just promoted to a new position at work and had trouble focusing during training for this new job. Once I was out to dinner with family and lashed out at the waitress who was rude to my mother. I was so short fused that it became difficult even to drive to work without having several feelings of road rage during a 7 minute drive to work.
After month three I marched into my doctor's office and told him that I could no longer take this medication or he'd be treating me in the Psychiatric ward. All of the memories of this treatment was running through my head while I watched Dr. Oz today and I'm not really sure that hysterectomy is the wrong decision for every woman. I do believe that a psychiatric evaluation should be done before a woman has a hysterectomy for those women that are still in child bearing years. I also believe that it should be done when all other treatments have failed.
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