Hysterectomy?

[Denkou Soshiatae]

I am 15, and yes I know I am a bit young to be thinking of having children. But I do think about it, and I have made one conclussion:
I am week and fear pain. I do not think I could handle carrying and birthing a child.

Also, I have very heavy uncomfortble periods, which often cause a week or more of cramps.

All of these have caused me to start looking into the Hysterectomy procedure.

Is this a good choice? I know that it is a bit risky, and I know that insurance will not cover it (they will deem it "cosmetic"), but I see no real need for me to have a uterus when I am older. Some people think it is because I hate children, but honesly I love them! I want EIGHT! But I CAN adopt them, so I still stand with my opinion...

So girl's, what do you think? Is a Hysterectomy worth looking into?


Also, would getting the surgery dettur men from starting a serious relationship?

I have a (very close) guy friend with whom I have shared my ideas in deapth. He has mentioned that his plan for the future is to go into the airforce for a while, then retire, marry, and start a family. He seemed... I'm not sure how to explain it, uneasy about my plans, and today even mentioned certain ways that a woman can give a painless birth (in case I changed my mind about the surgery, he said).
Before you worry, yes we kinda like each other and we are very close friends either way, so he's not being creepy.  

[greek goddess17]

You are 15 no this is not good for you they make meds for unbearable periods. I am 17 and 7 weeks pregnant and giving birth scares me to death and i have no tolerance for pain but my doctor is really kind and told me that he will make my babys birth as painless as possible. So do NOT get it done you will regreat it, also hysterectemy are mostly done in case of emergancy. You will end up regreating it later so think about it.  

[Cariella]

Since you did mention when you were gonna get the surgery, I hope you were thinking toward your 20's or 30's, not teens. D: Though I think you're smart enough to realize that. xD

Anyways, I totally understand. I'm 16 (so not far off from you) and even if I get the slightest cramp, I freak out. Very low pain tolerence. Getting pregnant scares the living s**t out of me!
But being 16, I'm probably not someone you should seek advice from. Maybe wait until your older, and if you haven't changed your mind, talk to your doctor about it. He/she would definitely know what to say. (:  

[User_20392979]

You are way too young and no doctor will preform one at this time and surgery can be pretty painful afterwards, plus there is always a chance of complications and infects.

No one wants a baby at 15 but things can always change down the line, so just take your time before making a decision as its permanent.  

[Denkou Soshiatae]

Oh goodness no I did NOT mean I want the surgery now!
I was thinking between the ages of 20-25!  

[greek goddess17]

Denkou Soshiatae

Oh goodness no I did NOT mean I want the surgery now!
I was thinking between the ages of 20-25!

Okay thats good wait.  

[User_20392979]

You'll probably have to wait until your 30, unless you have two kids or there is an emergency as that is usually how surgeons go about it.  

[Miss Misandrist]

I heard it's riskier than a vasectomy.

It could deter a guy from a serious relationship, if they were dead set on having kids. But you shouldn't let anyone pressure you into having children. That goes without saying, though.  

[surymi]

To be very honest with you,
you should forget the whole h,,,it's like you said..your only 15
choices like these do not need to be made now...and to remove your uterus at this age is not the best idea either....
leave this question for another time ...like maybe 10 years more...don't worry i think about kids too and im only17 but a serious choice like doesn't need to be made now
and people change over time heart heart  

[surymi]

greek goddess17

Denkou Soshiatae

Oh goodness no I did NOT mean I want the surgery now!
I was thinking between the ages of 20-25!

Okay thats good wait.

oh ok lol i didn't see this post... so just ignore the earlier part where it talks about age risk lol
but no seriously since its then you don't need to think about this now
you have plenty of time
for now enjoy your youth and your freedomm xd  

[LacrymosaVampiress22]

my aunt had one like a year ago and survided. she got sick like throwing up and had some pain but other then that she was alright.

but like since your gonna wait til like 20 something thats good. if you still gonna do it then ill back you up. but you might change your mind before then and have a kid which is good too. i heard that they give you some sort of shot that numbs the pain completly and you can have the child easily.  

[TH3_G1ITCH_]

I thought you could only have Hysterectomy if you had an actual reason, such as removing a fibroid. (Like my mum's been told to do but she doesn't want to go through with it)

I didn't think you could have it done just because you don't want kids. =/

That's what i've been told anyway.  

[Torwen]

I understand you have a low tolerance of pain, but a surgery is worse than childbirth. All that medication and random pain you'll receive after words is just not worth it in my opinion.

A hysterectomy is a last ditch attempt to get rid of something. Besides, when you're older you could change your mind about having children. Then what? I for one could never dream of not having children of my own. But if you don't change your mind you can always try laparoscopic sterilization, which is having your fallopian tubes tied. It's not as high a risk surgery as a hysterectomy, AND if you DO change your mind after words you can always have them untied.

OR if you want to avoid surgery and bodily harm (which is what you want to avoid anyway) you could always adopt a child. Millions of women per day give up their child for adoption, and I'm sure at least want to be able to raise a child of your own, right?  

[Ramiele]

I am 22 and a hysterectomy has been brought up with my history of not only massive female problems, but already having one uterine tumor removed (fibroid; non cancerous). I don't want one at all. I don't know if the doctor will do a hysterectomy while you're so young (like younger than 35-40) without a legitimate health reason. Even with all my female problems, hysterectomy is the last ditch thing, just because of what it can cause. And opinions always change. I know so many people who were so adamant against children, but changed their minds, even later on down the road in their 30s. =]  

[.Vindicated.Of.Sanity.]

Honey, I honestly doubt any upstanding physician would suggest hysterectomy as a way to go for you, and I doubt any surgeon worth his/her fancy schooling would allow you to make such a choice at your age, even bring their scalpel anywhere near you unless it was life-and-death.

Believe me, hun, I know exactly what you're thinking, because I have and still do think the same thing-- there is no way in hell I in any way want to carry around what is essentially a parasite in my uterus for nine awful months and then squeeze it out of my comparably-smaller-than-the-fetus v****a.
But you can't say what you'll feel like when you're older. Hormones shift and change, and it starts to feel right to want to settle down and start a family. Your partner may want biological children. There are tons of factors which will come into play and it is exceedingly foolish to rule them out prematurely. You don't want to be in your thirties watching all your friends go off and have babies and families and be happy and you be bitter because you screwed yourself out of something you didn't know you wanted. And yes, there's always adoption, but still. Some people feel very strongly, whether it's rational or not given that there are alternatives available, about having children with half of their own genes. And no matter how rationally you may be able to look at the issue, sometimes your body and all its hormones don't think as clearly as you do and will make you want to have your own children. That's just how we were programmed to work. I'm not saying you should go out and have kids; that's definitely completely your choice, and if you choose to adopt, I most definitely support you a thousand and ten percent. I just think you shouldn't close any doors that don't need closing. The potential for pain during childbirth isn't something that should make your decisions for you.
As for childbirth, well, why do you think women go through pregnancy again and again when they remember how much it freakin' hurt? Hormones. Plain and simple biochemistry. Oxytocin is released during labor that increases feelings of pleasure and joy in the mother, and the amount of oxytocin increases as she goes through labor. So even though it hurt like crazy, oxytocin sort of makes her 'forget' in a sense that it did, so that she's willing to do it all over again. The effects of oxytocin are sort of seen as worth the pain of childbirth. This was totally important throughout mammalian evolution to ensure that females of any species didn't decide screw it, this is too painful and didn't stop producing viable offspring that would propagate their species. Oxytocin's also suspected to be involved in love and sex. (eventual biology major? Yes. XD)


My mom just had a hysterectomy, because she had growths in the wall of her uterus that were causing her extreme pain and overly frequent periods. I've watched her suffer with that condition for years. But what was worse was watching her go through the surgery and the recovery-- that was absolutely painful to watch. Much more pain than your period, believe me. Pain that made it agonizing to move, cough, shift, sometimes even breathe for weeks afterward. Pain so bad she was drugged for about two weeks straight before she could be weaned off them. While she was in the hospital she was on morphine for that entire period of time. Morphine's a super-strong painkiller, an opiate derivative, highly effective and highly addictive. Serious stuff to combat serious pain, and even then she still hurt. And she has a scar that she's self-conscious of now, stretching from her bellybutton to the bottom of her stomach. At your age, you don't want a scar like that.
My mom's 39; and even now, with an eighteen-year-old daughter and a new fiance, she still yearns to have a baby, even though she can't now.
And now her hormones are all out of whack; your reproductive structures are instrumental in producing the hormones that regulate and balance a lot of very finely-tuned systems in your body. Ripping out your uterus basically screws all that up, and at your very young age, that would have devastating effects on your development.
I notice you said you'd wait until you're in your twenties, but even then I'd say it's still too early. Your hormones still play a massive role in your body at that time in your life.

And yeah, some guys will have a problem with that and it could definitely stand in the way of future relationships. I'm not saying it will definitely, but it might. Depends on the guy. Men's biology is also programmed to produce offspring, and so some guys will have their heart set on a house in the suburbs and two kids or whatever. Some will feel more strongly about it, some won't. You should always have the first say in terms of the conditions of your pregnancy (or lack thereof), but some guys will want their own children.

I think you should just live with your uterus in whatever peace you can make between the pair of you. Birth control and other types of medications can help regulate severity of period symptoms and make them bearable. Talk to your doctor about that, they can offer you a wide array of ways to reduce your current pain without limiting you to one path in the future. And just put all this serious thought in the background for a little while, have fun being young while you still can. There's time for planning out that sort of thing when you're older, but you can never do the sort of stuff you can get away with now when you get to that age.

@ A New World Fool:: it is much much riskier than a vasectomy. A vasectomy is just two small incisions and then they snip out a section of the tubules that carry sperm and cauterize both ends to keep sperm from going through the tubule. The recovery time is much much shorter and a hell of a lot less severe than that of a hysterectomy.