Love hearing more about your journey! You know mine had a cute name, Fibroid Betty! But that was as a way to have compassion for something that was essentially a part of me. What's great about your Ripley reference is that my mom loves that movie and taught me early on that Alien is a feminist movie.
Fellow fibroid sister! Yes! Your fibroid sounded so peppy! I thought of mine as parasites and my body gone rogue. I think Ripley will forever be my ultimate female movie hero.
Yeah, I thought it was time to try to write about this hysterectomy journey and see what comes out. There are so many angles one could reflect on.
I realized later on that this piece was perhaps not the best read for someone who's just starting their fibroid ordeal, but I hope anyone who reads this and is trying to decide if surgery is the way to go keeps in mind that they are ultimately the decision-makers - no matter how much the doctors/surgeons are trying to push. And to never ever feel guilty for asking questions or taking time to think about it.
I think it's a great post for people just starting out because you give facts and your own experience, and you do it with a boldness that is awesome. When i was petrified about getting a hysterectomy, I started reading alternatives on the internet (dumb) and no shit, websites were telling women to "steam" their vaginas to rid themselves of fibroids. If i would've read your post, i would've had no fear and understood it was a necessary procedure.
Thank you, Trilety! Gosh, I searched for alternatives for a couple of years too! Haha yes I saw the steam method and thought what the heck!! I did try DIM (basically concentrated broccoli pills) but it was of course just another distraction to avoid the real solution. I think what made me go for surgery was when I took matters in my own hands and actually tracked down the best surgeon in California that I could find. Forgot to mention that whole story in my essay. I narrowed it down to two people, and was lucky enough to connect with an amazing female surgeon in San Francisco.
Sometimes surgery is the best option but I am not one to rush into it. Thanks again for your comment. Always fun to bond over our dysfunctional uterus issues! 🤣
Thank you for writing and sharing this, Minna. These issues are definitely not talked about enough, and I really appreciate reading your perspective (and it's beautifully written).
Thanks a million! I really appreciate it. I rarely step up on the soapbox about anything but this has sort of become a thing I like to support and 'broadcast' now and then.
I'm looking down the barrel of something like this. I've had surgery three times in the past for endometriosis, but now I've done procreating (surgery made sure I could), I know this is probably what the Doctor will suggest. Thanks for sharing your story ❤️
Thank you for reading, Susan! You're already an expert with three surgeries behind you and procreating sounds like many times tougher to me than a surgery. You've gone through a lot! My two cents is that if another surgery is brought up as an idea, ask tons of questions and talk to as many doctors as you want to. And, find female doctors. Sadly my experience with male ob gyns have been negative and they're all super eager to do surgery. "You don't need that thing anymore, let's just cut it out." type of thinking. Yeah, let's see if they'd like to have some of their own parts cut out...
Love hearing more about your journey! You know mine had a cute name, Fibroid Betty! But that was as a way to have compassion for something that was essentially a part of me. What's great about your Ripley reference is that my mom loves that movie and taught me early on that Alien is a feminist movie.
Fellow fibroid sister! Yes! Your fibroid sounded so peppy! I thought of mine as parasites and my body gone rogue. I think Ripley will forever be my ultimate female movie hero.
Yeah, I thought it was time to try to write about this hysterectomy journey and see what comes out. There are so many angles one could reflect on.
I realized later on that this piece was perhaps not the best read for someone who's just starting their fibroid ordeal, but I hope anyone who reads this and is trying to decide if surgery is the way to go keeps in mind that they are ultimately the decision-makers - no matter how much the doctors/surgeons are trying to push. And to never ever feel guilty for asking questions or taking time to think about it.
I think it's a great post for people just starting out because you give facts and your own experience, and you do it with a boldness that is awesome. When i was petrified about getting a hysterectomy, I started reading alternatives on the internet (dumb) and no shit, websites were telling women to "steam" their vaginas to rid themselves of fibroids. If i would've read your post, i would've had no fear and understood it was a necessary procedure.
Thank you, Trilety! Gosh, I searched for alternatives for a couple of years too! Haha yes I saw the steam method and thought what the heck!! I did try DIM (basically concentrated broccoli pills) but it was of course just another distraction to avoid the real solution. I think what made me go for surgery was when I took matters in my own hands and actually tracked down the best surgeon in California that I could find. Forgot to mention that whole story in my essay. I narrowed it down to two people, and was lucky enough to connect with an amazing female surgeon in San Francisco.
Sometimes surgery is the best option but I am not one to rush into it. Thanks again for your comment. Always fun to bond over our dysfunctional uterus issues! 🤣
(To clarify: I did NOT try the steam method!! Instead I resorted to taking broccoli in pill form! 🤣)
Hhahaha!! Omg so funny. And good for you for researching surgeons - that would be a kick ass post.
Thank you for writing and sharing this, Minna. These issues are definitely not talked about enough, and I really appreciate reading your perspective (and it's beautifully written).
Thanks a million! I really appreciate it. I rarely step up on the soapbox about anything but this has sort of become a thing I like to support and 'broadcast' now and then.
I'm looking down the barrel of something like this. I've had surgery three times in the past for endometriosis, but now I've done procreating (surgery made sure I could), I know this is probably what the Doctor will suggest. Thanks for sharing your story ❤️
Thank you for reading, Susan! You're already an expert with three surgeries behind you and procreating sounds like many times tougher to me than a surgery. You've gone through a lot! My two cents is that if another surgery is brought up as an idea, ask tons of questions and talk to as many doctors as you want to. And, find female doctors. Sadly my experience with male ob gyns have been negative and they're all super eager to do surgery. "You don't need that thing anymore, let's just cut it out." type of thinking. Yeah, let's see if they'd like to have some of their own parts cut out...
This is so true about the male Dr's!! Thanks Minna. I'll be taking a notebook with me for certain.