Find out how surgical menopause affects your sexual health.
Menopause is the loss of fertility and permanent cessation of menstrual periods due to the loss of ovarian function, which usually happens naturally to all women between the ages of 45 and 55.
If your ovaries are surgically removed (oophorectomy), you'll experience menopause after the operation. This happens regardless of your age and is called surgical menopause.
Surgical menopause happens when you have surgery to remove your ovaries. Usually, removing the ovaries is a preventive measure against disease. You might need an oophorectomy due to:
If you have a hysterectomy but one or both of your ovaries is left intact, you may experience menopause sooner than if you had not had the hysterectomy. You may also experience menopause sooner if you have just a single ovary removed but no hysterectomy. On average, women with a hysterectomy and ovarian preservation experience menopause about a year earlier than they would have otherwise.
One of the biggest differences between surgical and natural menopause is that natural menopause happens over many years, whereas surgical menopause happens immediately.
Although your hormone levels decline during natural menopause, your ovaries continue to produce testosterone and small amounts of estrogen. In surgical menopause, this production doesn't happen because the ovaries have been removed.
The menopausal symptoms can appear within hours or days after surgery. As the hormone changes happen suddenly rather than over several years, the symptoms of surgical menopause are often more acute.
You may wonder if there can be any pros to surgical menopause, but for some women, there are benefits to having the ovaries removed, such as:
Surgical menopause also comes with its challenges, and you may have:
You also are no longer fertile or able to conceive after surgical menopause.
There are some increased risks associated with surgical menopause. If you have a bilateral oophorectomy before the age of 45, resulting in surgical menopause, you have a higher risk of developing heart disease, neurological issues, osteoporosis, and pulmonary and colorectal cancer.
Your doctor can advise you on measures you can take to protect your long-term health. These steps might include:
The symptoms of surgical menopause are the same as those of natural menopause but may be more intense. There is a wide variety of menopausal symptoms, and not everyone experiences all of them.
Some of the most common symptoms include:
Whether due to natural or surgical menopause, symptoms can significantly affect every aspect of your life. There are several ways you can manage your menopausal symptoms. Your doctor can discuss hormone replacement therapy with you to help with surgical menopausal symptoms.
HRT can help alleviate surgical menopausal symptoms by replacing some of the hormones lost through the removal of the ovaries. After surgical menopause, estrogen therapy is the most common HRT prescribed, as you may have had your uterus removed in a hysterectomy. However, if you still have a womb, your doctor can prescribe both estrogen and progestogen.
It's important to remember that HRT won't precisely match the hormones your body produces before surgical menopause. You may need to try different doses and brands of HRT to find the one that suits you the best. Don't be afraid to discuss this subject with your healthcare provider and tell them if you are not feeling a benefit from HRT. There are many options to try.
HRT can relieve a lot of menopausal symptoms, and specifically, it is known to help with:
HRT is not suitable for everyone. If you have conditions such as a hormone-dependent type of breast cancer or liver disease, HRT might not be an option for you. It's essential to disclose your full medical history to your doctor before deciding whether HRT is suitable for you.
Alongside HRT, there are other treatment options to help you manage surgical menopausal symptoms:
Early research has promising results showing that hypnotherapy and mindfulness meditation might help with hot flashes and other symptoms.
Sex changes at different stages in life, just as your body changes. If you have been living with chronic pelvic pain, endometriosis or painful cysts, sex may feel better if your symptoms are relieved by a hysterectomy and/or bilateral oophorectomy.
Your vagina may not be as moist as it was before surgery, which can make sex painful and cause vaginal itching and dryness. But this condition is easy to treat with HRT and other products. Using a water-based lubricant before sexual intercourse eliminates the discomfort caused by vaginal dryness. You can also explore the plethora of new nonhormonal creams and gels containing hyaluronic acid to help replenish moisture in vaginal tissue.
If you are experiencing low libido or other sexual dysfunction symptoms, HRT can help replace the hormones lost through surgical menopause. Speak to your OB-GYN, because there are a lot of options to help you enjoy sex after surgical menopause.
The North American Menopause Society provides information and resources on all aspects of menopause, including surgical menopause.
The Surmeno Connection is an online resource and support group for women who are in surgical menopause.
Ovacome is a national charity in the United Kingdom providing advice and support to people with ovarian cancer, including support for surgical menopause.
The International Association for Premenstrual Disorders offers advice, education and support relating to all premenstrual disorders, including how to thrive in surgical menopause.
