See You Later, Ovulator!
How a life-changing hysterectomy gave me my life back
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Published in
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8 min read
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Nov 7, 2024
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Seven years ago, I had a hysterectomy, and to this day, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.
I understand that, for many women, their uterus symbolizes a part of their womanhood. After all, men don’t have them, and without a uterus, you can’t have children.
I was fortunate to have had all my children before the surgery; however, you must understand I had been at war with my uterus since I was 11 years old.
My first period arrived in a very dramatic fashion when I was 11. Before then, I’d never experienced cramps with such severity that walking became an impossible task.
In one unfair twist of development, I went from being a super active kid who loved to swim competitively to an adolescent with restrictions on when I could go in the pool, depending on that time of the month.
Sure, I could have used tampons, but at 11 years old, those enormous cotton plugs looked terrifying, and, at that age, my vagina was a one-way street: things came out, not went in.
It wasn’t just the cramping but also the heavy blood flow that seemed far beyond the “one-and-a-half shot glass” measurement that magazines said was within the normal range. As far as I was concerned, I…
