Hysterectomy

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I have been on Tamoxifen for 3 years now and experiencing slight vaginal bleeding, which I belive is a side effect.  I’ve seen a gynea and he’s done a couple of hysteroscopes and reckons everything is fine.  I would have thought this would put my mind at ease but it raises a second question - how would I know from 1 day to the next that the bleeding has turned into something more sinister.  The gynea has suggested a hysterectomy which I guess would take the uncertainty away.

 

My gut feeling is that I do not want an unnecessary operation.  I’m 54 and past child bearing age so that does not come into play.  Can anyone give me their views - I just don’t know what to think

 

Strawbs

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Hi Strawberryblonde ,why are they suggesting hysterectomy if they don’t think there is anything wrong -to reduce your anxiety ? I had hysterectomy in April as had Tamoxifen induced womb cancer ,it’s a major op and takes quite a bit of recovering from and I have had a lot of post op complications -if you don’t have to put your body through it I wouldn’t .Jill.

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If it’s the only way to reduce your anxiety fair enough go for it ,but it is a major op and it takes it out of you so be prepared if you go down that route.

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Hi Strawberry

I have a yearly ultrasound to check up what’s going on as I already had endometrial hyperplasia when I started on tamoxifen. I’ve worried for the best part of a year in case anything sinister was happening, and did have another slight bleed just before the ultrasound, so was starting to panic. But the ultrasound showed only slight further thickening, so now I’m fairly happy that nothing is changing in a hurry.

My gyne consultant said that if they’ve done one hysteroscopy they don’t normally repeat it for six months as any malignant changes would take at least that long, and annual ultrasounds are enough to catch anything very early.

 

It’s not easy living with this sort of uncertainty, but a hysterectomy is more major surgery, and not something I wanted if I could avoid it. I think it’s very easy to get into an anxiety mindset as a result of being diagnosed, it knocks your confidence for six. I think if I’d had the hysterectomy I’d have started worrying about something else instead.