Psycho-social problems of women who had undergone hysterectomy

Manju said that since she was very young at the time of hysterectomy, everyone,especially her husband, had advised her to opt for HRT. In retrospect, in spite ofsome recent studies which reported increased morbidity associated with long termuse of HRT, Manju feels that opting for HRT treatment was the right thing to do inher case.Interpretation of findings and discussionAlthough the four women who were interviewed for the case study were differentin many respects, certain factors emerge common to all the cases. All of themsuffered from various physical and psychological problems both before and afterthe hysterectomy. In the first three cases, severe, prolonged and irregular bleedinghad interfered with the daily functioning of those women forcing them to opt forhysterectomy. The common complaints during the post-hysterectomy period werehot flushes, irritability, mood swing and weight gain. Other problems varied fromperson to person. In terms of sexual life, responses varied from loss of libido toincrease in sexual pleasure after the operation.It was seen that even in those cases where heavy and painful bleeding led to thehysterectomy, the women undergoing the surgery had mixed feelings about it.While they accepted the hysterectomy as necessary and expressed relief frompainful symptoms after the hysterectomy, they had approached surgery withvarious apprehensions. Such apprehensions had its origin in a) inadequateinformation given to the women by the doctor, and b) accounts of other peopleregarding what to expect after the hysterectomy. It was seen that the accounts ofpost-hysterectomy life passed on to women who are to undergo hysterectomy byfriends, relatives and acquaintances are mostly of a negative character. Suchaccounts make the patients apprehensive and anxious. In addition, the informationgiven by the health care providers to the women undergoing hysterectomy wasfound to be inadequate. In most cases, doctors did not discuss the posthysterectomyproblems or its treatment with these women.