Archives for April 2011

My 39 y/o sister has severe back pain for 3 years. She recently found out that she has an elevated CA-125 of 120 and bilateral ovarian cysts. She lives in a small town and they referred her to the closest University for a laparoscopy. I’m afraid the university will do a knee jerk hysterectomy while doing the lap. Is this a valid concern?
What should she and I know to avoid this.
I’m a med student and know nothing but believe she may have corpus luteal cysts or endometriosis because pain seems to be worse the last 14 days of every cycle. We have no history of cancer in our family. I don’t understand why she has such pain to her back unless she has adhesions in the pouch of douglas perhaps? Have you heard of severe back pain where the patient rolls on the floor and is awaken from sleep.

Dear Flymacmamma-
Elective surgical procedures are performed based on informed consent..if you sister does not sign for a hysterectomy or removal of her ovaries, neither should be done at that time.

We have seen many patients with back pain as a symptom…it is often directly associated with pathology in the pelvis impinging on nerves in that area. If your sisters cysts are large or located toward the back of her pelvis, they could be pressing on the low back area, creating this pain, especially after hours of sleeping when there is little movement or change in position.
She should have surgery to remove the cysts, but preserving her ovaries if the condition is deemed benign. Good luck.

My uterus is enlarged measuring 10.6 x 4.9 x 6.4 cm and my endometrium is thickened measuring 1.34 cm. Pelvic exam revealed a mass (guessed to be a fibroid). My uterus is bulky, anteverted and deviated to the left, prominent and nodular. I have a deformity at the dome of my bladder from the overlying uterus. It looks on the IVP x-ray like my uterus is actually laying on my bladder, no doubt that it is pinching the dome of my bladder. During the IVP test, I was informed that my bladder was not filling properly and I was given 2 glasses of water to drink to get the contrast to go down and I was also told that my uterus may be causing this. I had mild bilateral hydronephrosis show up on a CT but a following renal ultrasound & the IVP of my upper urinary tract was normal (no obstruction to upper urinary tract). My question is what kind of problem exactly am I dealing with here and if it something that needs to be surgically corrected. My symptoms are severe including frequency (sometimes over 100 times a day), burning, incontinence, pain/pressure/numbness in bladder & kidneys, low back pain, grade 2 vaginal cystocele, with a very irritated & spasmic bladder with low capacity ability. I guess my main concern is if this could be a possible obstruction to my lower urinary tract. How could I find out? I have already had so many tests done. I’m scheduled to have my uterus removed this month and am not wanting to go through with it without knowing if it’s really needed or not.

Dear Twinkletwinkle-
We see many many women in our program with similar symptoms: back pain, urinary frequency, incontinence, hydronephrosis, low bladder capacity and its associated with the enlarged fibroid uterus. We have been able to successfully remove the tumors and debulk the uterus so that it is significantly reduced in size and does not impinge upon the bladder or related structures.
The above mentioned symptoms get resolved.
We recommend women keep their uterus if possible..once its removed another whole subset of problems can develop(please read website section on hysterectomy complications)-including bladder prolapse which often requires another surgery. Our FAS program can definitely help you.
Please do your research before agreeing to have the uterus removed.
Good luck

Dear Dr-I am 38 yrs old (3 children-ages 6,10 and 12 yrs old)I was diagnosed with adenomyosis 3 years back and had a hysteroscopy resection of myoma 2 years ago,in year 2004.The result of the procedure/surgery was not good. Pain and heavy bleeding continued. 3 months down the road, Mirena was recommended and used. Mirena has not helped and is not effective as my uterine bleeding is thickening (6.4cm) and I now have 2 additional growth (fibroids at 1.9cm and 2.6 cm).Menstrual cycle remains regular but the bleeding is inching itself to heavier flows each month.
Sub total hysterectomy has been recommended. I have read alot about the consequences of this surgery. Please advise if there are other alternatives.
Thank you and I hope to get a reply from you.

Dear April-
Those procedures you have tried are bandaid approaches to your disease process. The uterus needs to be opened up and the fibroids and adenomyosis removed. Our FAS procedure can help you…we routinely treat patients with adeno and have removed over 240 fibroid tumors from one patient. Our success is partly due to laser use.
Please give my office a call, I know we an help you.

I am 45 year old woman who lost her ovaries at age 33 due to severe polycystic ovarian disease. I still have my uterus and I am the fortunate mother of beautiful twins from a donor egg. I was just diagnosed with adneomyosis and a hysterecomy has been recommended. I am on HRT with the Vivelle patch and about every 8 weeks I do a course of Progesterone to induce a bleed. I have long, painful, clot filled periods from the progesterone and if I don’t take it, I get weeks of heavy bleeding as the lining sloughs off. I do not want a hysterectomy nor an ablation. While I do not want more children, psychologically I can not bear to part with my uterus. Several friends have had hysterectomy and even with the surgery sparing their ovaries they still complain of sexual dysfunction. Would I still need Progesterone therapy after the surgery and could my uterus ever be used again to carry a pregnancy??

Dear Mary-
We support your desire to keep uterus..it has many functions beyond childbirth.
Our FAS procedure will allow you to keep your uterus but would eliminate the symptoms associated with adenomyosis.There would be no need to take progesterone post surgery. Depending on the extent of your disease, we normally do not recommend pregnancy following our procedure.
Hope this has been helpful.

Hi, I am a 31 year old woman, and I have been having digestive problems for 8 years. I was told that it was my gall bladder, and I had it removed. I still had the same problem. I was told by several of the doctors that it could be a gynelogical problem, o I scheduled an appointment. I saw the gynecologist, and he scheduled me for a sonogram. During my exam, I was told that I had fibroids, but they were too small to be causing me pain or discomfort. My doctor called me a couple of days later, and told me that I have fibroids, and I needed a hysterectomy. The next time I saw him, I was scheduling my surgery after only sseeing him once. I did have periods that were painful, but not alarming. I did have irregular periods, but it wasn’t alarming. I figured that the fibroids were a major problem, and maybe that was what was causing my problems. Maybe it was the fibroids. I did not know, that there were alterntives to having a hysterectomy, I would have jumped at the chance. I was not ready to give up my womanhood, and was even considering another child. I trusted him, I thought that this was my only option, and I did it. It was a disaster!!! I am a small woman, 5’7, 119lbs, and my body was just abused. He cut mt ureter during surgery. I was lying there for hours waiting for a urologist to get there. I had a stent put in. I was sent home three days later, and went back to his office with a fever. He tells me that I have an infection in 1 of 5 places, and sends me home. A week later, I am admitted into the hospital with three severe infections. Was put under again to put the stent back in. I was put on five different medications which caused me to be sick all the time. Now, I feel no better. I am experiencing hot flashes. I am having severe night sweats. I have constant swelling in my feet,hands, and legs. I have back pain, stomach pain, and something sticking out and poking me from inside of my stomach. Im not sure if it is a staple or what. I just know that it is painful, and hurts just to wear pants. I did see a doctor about it, and they told me basically that it is all in my head. I am sometimes doubled over in pain. I just want to know, if I really needed a hysterectomy, and isn’t it my rights to know other alternatives. Also, why am I experiencing menopausel symptoms when I only had a partial hysterectomy. At least that is what I was told. It has been over three months since my surgery, and I would like to know if the pain is normal after three months, and what I should expect in changes in my body. I am afraid. I would never have agreed to a hysterectomy if I had known there were tother ways to treat my problem.

Dear Karmaengel-
Thank you for your posting..this is so important for women to read. Your experience, like many other post hysterectomy women, has ended up very negatively and accompanied by irreversible problems. This is why we continually recommend women do their research thoroughly before agreeing to hysterectomy. Many many women do not respond well after that surgery. We encourage patients to read the information posted in the HERS Foundation website in order to become fully informed.
Many women experience problems with hormone imbalance after hysterectomy and often have early onset of menopause due to ovarian dysfunction. You should probably get a complete hormone panel to see where you are. Pain this long after surgery is not the norm..we would recommend you go back to your surgeon and get some answers.
Good luck to you.

I am a 47 year old with very large fibroids. I don’t have heavy peiords, or pain with the fibroids. The only problems I’ve had are frequent urination, and I look like someone 8 months pregnant. I tried a procedure that was preformed by a radiologist to stop blood flow to the fibroids to see if the tumors would shrink. This procedure was unsuccessful. Now according to my physician the only other alternative is a hysterectomy. I really do not want a hysterectomy but I am uncomfortable because of the size of my stomach. Any suggestions?

Dear Elaine-
UAE does not work for tumors that large..we have treated many patients post that surgery.
Our FAS procedure is an alternative and will remove your tumors safely, without blood loss or hysterectomy. We have removed over 240 tumors from one patient, and removed a tumor the size of a watermelon.
I know we can help you and save your uterus..give my office a call.

I am worried about after the surgery will my husband and I be able to have a normal sex life or having the hystorectomy change every thing? How much will the hystorectomy change my life?

Dear Suzzyq-
We will refer you directly to our Hysterectomy Complications section and advise you read further on www.hersfoundation.com.
There are definitely changes associated with hysterectomy-lack of sexual desire, lack of sexual response, hormone imbalance….which side effects you might get and when are undeterminable. That is the risk of that surgery and why we do not recommend it for benign diseases.