
Image via iStock. By Katina P. Mamigonian-Ionescu for Ravishly.
Without sufficient estrogen in your body, you begin growing a crop of course hair on your chin. If you’re as lucky as I am, they’re PITCH BLACK! I felt my first hair six months after the surgery. If I let it grow, I’d have a full beard, complementary mustache included.
Suppose you are about to have a hysterectomy. Do you think you’re told everything you need to know about your Vaginal Renaissance? Nope! The answers you seek will come through your own experiences. Having a hysterectomy can be devastating; especially if you’ve never had the experience of being pregnant.
Mine happened so quickly that I was unable to truly grasp the impact it would have on my life. My choices were: A. Hysterectomy, or B. Be overcome by cancer. Within 24 hours I went from being diagnosed with endometrial and uterine cancer, to being told I needed an emergency total abdominal hysterectomy, and finally, having my reproductive rights taken away from me.
Oh, let’s not forget my football-sized ovaries, which collectively housed 41 tumors — three of which contained cancer. While traveling the bumpy road of “Surgically Induced Menopause,” I’ve learned quite a few things that were never explained to me:
1. Grieving.
They never explained the difficulties of healing. At the time of my surgery, I was only 30 years old. I didn’t have any children. The loss of my eggs was very difficult for me to wrap my thoughts around. I was never going to have the joy of creating another human being, carrying that human being in my body, feel it kicking and moving, or experience the beauty of child birth. It was gone. Like that. My body was robbed of my biological rights as a woman.
2. Hot flashes.
I didn’t know what a hot flash was until I went through my first one, hours after my surgery — a hot flash is “a personal summer”! You know when it’s about to hit you when your chest starts to heat up and radiates out to the rest of your body. It can be the middle of an icy winter, windows open, you’re wearing a tank top and shorts, sweating like you just ran ten miles. (Post continues after gallery.)
Celebrities talking about their menopause experience
You can be in the deepest sleep of your life, and BAM: a hot flash hits and your sleep is destroyed. The heat intensifies so quickly, and you have become completely drenched in sweat — in the meantime, your blankets take a beating. Eventually, you cool off, and pull the blankets back onto your body because you’re freezing. Thirty minutes later (after you’ve drifted back to sleep) the cycle starts again. Fantastic!
3. The beard.
Without sufficient estrogen in your body, you begin growing a crop of course hair on your chin. If you’re as “lucky” as I am, they’re PITCH BLACK! I felt my first hair six months after the surgery. If I let it grow, I’d have a full beard, complementary mustache included. The maintenance on my face involves a weekly date with a 10x magnifying mirror and accompanying tweezers.
4. Hormones.
When we are younger we really don’t understand the importance of hormones. However, when your direct source of estrogen is removed, EVERYTHING goes wrong. Your emotions become… unpredictable. When I was on Premarin (estrogen replacement therapy) I cried constantly over the dumbest things (i.e. the cat lost his toy, a sock was mismatched, the sun was up, etc.).