Hysterectomy Surgery: Total, Partial, Abdominal, Vaginal, Laparoscopic, After Hysterectomy Recovery

A hysterectomy means surgical removal of all or part of your uterus as a form of treatment. During this surgery, your cervix, fallopian tubes and ovaries may be removed as well.

Two things are for certain after having any type of hysterectomy, pregnancy is impossible and no more menstruation. The later may be a welcome relief. However, the loss of fertility is one of the toughest decisions you’ll ever have to make.

Some of the health reasons that hysterectomy surgery is considered are:

For many of these health conditions, there are alternate forms of treatment that should be exhausted prior to conceding to this major surgery.

Total and partial are the two basic types of hysterectomies. A total hysterectomy means the removal of your entire uterus and cervix. Whereas, a partial, aka supracervical or subtotal, leaves your cervix in place.

Radical hysterectomy removes your uterus, the tissue surrounding your cervix and the upper part of the vagina. And a total hysterectomy with salpingo-oophorectomy removes your uterus, cervix, both ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Hysterectomies are performed via three major methods. This variance takes into account reason for the surgery, the size of what needs to be removed, recovery and expense.

Abdominal hysterectomy means you’ll have a fairly large incision in the lower part of your abdomen, through which your uterus, and whatever else, is removed. This cut may go up and down, or across, just above your pubic hairline.

Vaginal hysterectomy makes a cut in your vagina through which your uterus is taken out. Laparoscopic hysterectomy involves small abdominal incisions, one for laparoscope insertion and the others cuts are where chopped up pieces of your uterus are removed.

For now, abdominal hysterectomy is purported to be the most common and takes the longest to recover from after. Laparoscopic hysterectomy is the easiest to recover from, yet the most expensive. Albeit, it’s becoming more popular for the obvious recovery reason.

A hysterectomy is a major surgery, so it’s not brought to you without risks, such as:

Your after hysterectomy recovery largely depends on which type you’ve had. Recovery from a vaginal or laparoscopic hysterectomy is faster than recovery from an abdominal hysterectomy. And the former is reportedly less painful.

After surgery hospital stay for abdominal hysterectomy may be as long as 4 days, and vaginal or laparoscopic a day or two. If cancer is the cause for a hysterectomy, then hospital recovery is typically longer.

After hysterectomy recovery might involve:

Complete recovery ranges from a couple weeks (vaginal & laparoscopic hysterectomy) to a couple of months (abdominal hysterectomy).

After a partial hysterectomy, Pap tests will continue to be required because cervical cancer is still a possibility. And having a hysterectomy shouldn’t affect your sex life, some even report an increase in pleasure after their surgery. Could be because those vexatious gynecological problems are resolved.

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