05/02/2026
ptp
Why hysterectomy DOESN’T help endometriosis? ✂️🚫
GENTLE REMINDER: I’m a husband learning behind my wife, who lives with stage IV endo and fibro. This is not medical advice but my own research and a wish to understand. Please share your real-life experiences so I can write more accurately for the next woman. Your lived truth matters more than anything. Tell me what I get right or wrong so I can keep learning and spread better awareness. THANK YOU.
Some of the things we discuss here are worth sharing again to combat myths surrounding endometriosis, especially because I see many women being mislead by doctors who lack of common sense, damaging reputation of doctors who really care about women's health.
A hysterectomy removes the uterus, but since endometriosis tissue grows outside of it (on the peritoneum, ovaries, bowel, bladder, diaphragm, and more), by the very definition, taking the uterus out does not remove those endo implants.
Some women do feel better after hysterectomy if they had heavy bleeding or adenomyosis (a sister condition where tissue grows inside the uterine muscle and therefore removing it makes sense), but endometriosis itself remains and continues to cause pain.
Pain after hysterectomy can happen for several reasons!
Lesions on the bowel or bladder can keep flaring, scar tissue can cause pain, pelvic floor muscles can stay tight from years of guarding, and nerves can stay sensitized from long-term inflammation.
That’s why many specialists say the surgeon’s mapping and removal of endometriosis (excision by an experienced team) matters more than taking the uterus out. But at my wife's last appointment to discuss her 2nd surgery, lazy doctor wanted to just do hysterectomy because it suited him. Why do I say that? Because my wife's stage IV deep infiltrating endo is so complex, it would take him longer than hysterectomy.
In afdition to it, if her ovaries were removed at the same time, that eould cause sudden menopause. And why go through such a life changing operation when she’s already perimenopausal?
For some, lowering oestrogen can quiet symptoms, but it also brings new issues, hot flushes, sleep problems, bone and heart health concerns, so women often need hormone therapy or a clear plan for long-term health.
Keeping the ovaries avoids surgical menopause, but endometriosis can still be hormonally active if lesions remain. But it can also grow with HRT, can't it?
What actually helps depends on each person’s goals and disease pattern. If pain is driven by deep lesions, skilled imaging and careful excision can help, if heavy bleeding or adenomyosis is the main problem, hysterectomy can help that piece while acknowledging it won’t “cure” endometriosis.
Now, most guidelines say the plan should match your goal (pain, function, fertility), be reviewed often, and be done by a team that treats endometriosis every week. But I want to understand the whole picture with compassion, and your opinion matters more than anything. So, please tell me:
• If you chose hysterectomy, what changed for you — pain, energy, bowel or bladder symptoms — months later?
• If you didn’t, what finally helped the most — excision, pelvic floor therapy, medical treatment, or a mix?
• If you had adenomyosis and endometriosis together, how did you decide, and what do you wish someone had explained more clearly?
Lucjan 🎗
