Having a Hysterectomy to Stop Heavy Periods: ‘A Weight Had Been Lifted’
Key takeaways:
When Dollicia Green was in her late forties, she was fed up with her heavy menstrual bleeding and painful periods.
Although she was resistant to the idea at first, she opted to have a hysterectomy.
A hysterectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the uterus. It stops monthly periods and eliminates heavy bleeding.
The decision to have a hysterectomy was not one that Dollicia Green took lightly.
For years, she had been suffering with heavy menstrual bleeding. Not only was the blood running out of her like water out of a faucet, but also she was fatigued, run down, and had anemia (a low blood count).
In her head, she always had something else to attribute her exhaustion to — work, school, or being a mom. So she never sought medical help.
She tried to come to terms with her heavy bleeding and the inconveniences it caused in her daily life. Typically, the bleeding was the heaviest on the first day of her cycle and got lighter after that. But she constantly worried about bleeding through her clothes. And feeling run down all of the time on top of that felt like a lot to navigate.
Finding uterine fibroids
By 2019, Dollicia had finally had enough. As a nurse practitioner, she suspected she had fibroids.
Fibroids are noncancerous growths in the uterus that can cause heavy bleeding and painful periods. And she knew up to 80% of people with monthly periods develop them by the age of 50. So fibroids seemed to Dollicia like the likely cause of her heavy bleeding.
Dollicia went to see her doctor, who ran tests and confirmed she had fibroids. Her doctor recommended that she start hormonal birth control to decrease her heavy periods, but Dollicia was a little hesitant.
“I had always been sensitive to hormones but figured maybe this time would be different,” she says.
She tried a hormone-releasing intrauterine device (IUD), which was new to her. It’s a T-shaped piece of plastic that’s inserted in the uterus and releases a hormone that prevents pregnancy and can stop monthly periods.
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“Not long after it was in place, I started having reactions,” Dollicia says. “I’d wake up in the morning covered in hives. My face was swollen and bloated.”
She told her doctor about the side effects, and her doctor prescribed prednisone. The steroid helped reduce her immune response at first, but then she had another reaction. This went on for about a month.
“I knew that there was absolutely nothing else new in my life and had a gut sense that the reactions must be related to the IUD,” Dollicia says.
She brought it up with her doctor again and had her IUD removed. And, as a result, her heavy bleeding returned.
A full and busy life delays her treatment
At that point, in 2019, Dollicia's life was especially busy. She was balancing the stresses of parenthood and her job as a brand-new nurse practitioner in Florida.
With so much going on, she decided there wasn’t enough time to address the issue. After all, she had handled it for this long already. Maybe she could wait it out until menopause, she thought, when her period would naturally stop.
Two years later, the bleeding became worse than ever. Instead of just 1 day of intense bleeding, she would have 2 or 3 days. Previously, her periods would last a total of about 4 days. But that regularly turned into 7 or 8 days. It was too much, she says.
In December 2021, she went for her annual checkup, during which her doctor performed a pelvic exam. When her doctor put pressure on Dollicia’s right side, Dollicia felt some unusual pain. So she went for an ultrasound to determine the source of the pain.
After the ultrasound, it still wasn’t clear what was causing Dollicia’s pain. Her doctor decided she needed an MRI and blood work to look further.
After the MRI, Dollicia was informed that an 8-cm mass had been found and that it needed to come out. The next step was to do a laparoscopy to get a better visual.
“My doctor informed me that we should have a plan from that point,” Dollicia says. “Because, if action needed to be taken and a hysterectomy was needed, it didn’t make sense to do the procedure twice.”
Having a hysterectomy sounded like a big decision to Dollicia, who was 50 at the time.
“Even though I was beyond my childbearing years, I was reluctant to let go of my uterus,” she says. “That was a lot to grapple with.”
She worried about facing early menopause, she says, and if sex would still feel good. Plus, she wondered what it would feel to lose something that had always been a part of her body.
Mentally preparing for a hysterectomy
Because of scheduling, another 2 months passed before Dollicia could get an appointment for a hysterectomy. She says the delay helped her mentally prepare to have the procedure.
Her doctor was able to successfully perform a laparoscopic hysterectomy, removing Dollicia's mass and her uterus.
“After 2 weeks, I was doing well, with just mild pain that could be handled with medication,” Dollicia says. “Mentally, I felt as if a weight had been lifted.
“I felt relieved and content with my choice. And I was especially happy not to have to deal with the bleeding anymore. I also felt a lot better physically: I had no more fatigue, lost about 8 pounds, and no longer struggled with incontinence, which I had never thought was related.”
The importance of prioritizing self-care
The most surprising outcome of her surgery, Dollicia says, has been the way it changed her perspective.
She no longer puts her health last on her to-do list: “I now see the worth in prioritizing self-care."
“I could have so easily still been just dealing with the heavy bleeding and trying to live with the fatigue. But that’s no way to go through life,” she says “I am better for everyone in my life when I am operating at full capacity.
“I thought I was doing the world a favor by overlooking my own needs. But, in reality, I wasn’t.”
Dollicia says she’s no longer willing to compromise her well-being by prioritizing everything else before her own needs.
“I am in considerably better health now,” she says. “Having a hysterectomy was a wise decision. It might not be right for everyone. But, in looking at what life felt like before and after, I know I did what’s best for my body, mind, and soul.
“I feel empowered, healthy, and strong. And that is worth a lot.”
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