First, Happy belated Birthday to Anne! I love those decade celebrations. They say life begins at this one. Enjoy!

{{Kristin}} Parents! This stuff goes both ways. If you want to know about important things, like surgery, in your kids life you need to share these details from your life too! My mom does this all the time, but honestly we don't tell her stuff because she is too old and fragile. Both sides should be more open.

{{Erin}} My sisters and mom all had hysterectomies. My girly parts gently retired on their own about 8 years ago. Hormones they tried to push on me when I was losing mine made me insane, literally. Birth control pills did the same thing to me. I would venture to guess that if BCPs don't bother you then HRT won't either.

Red is just too hard for me to maintain although I think it suits me. With my hair so long now I don't want to try. I have considered lightening it a bit though.

Erin! I don't understand at all. I'd think that your girl parts should be constantly high-fiving each other and saying, "WOOT! Check us out, we're in ERIN, how lucky are we?"

I just loved this from JZ. Truer words never spoken!

Barb, at least we can call her an ignorant slut here. You showed most excellent restraint there.

Erin! I don't understand at all. I'd think that your girl parts should be constantly high-fiving each other and saying, "WOOT! Check us out, we're in ERIN, how lucky are we?"

JZ and Laura, I can safely say, my girly bits are NOT LOGICAL. They are stupid and vacuously malicious. They are Harmony as a villan -- without point, annoying but still potentially dangerous and painful, and turn on you for no good reason.

Reading stuff on hysterectomies and HRT on the internet is...um...there's a lot of bias out there, shall I say?

HRT is clearly not a one size fits all thing. I'd say go with your instinct from your personal medical experience. My experience with any hormones was a deep black hole, but they help plenty of women. I had good success through the transition with herbal supplements. I haven't taken anything for years now.

When I had my hysterectomy a couple of years ago, I considered HRT, but with my mom having had breast and uterine cancer, I thought it was best not to mess with hormones. Herbal cold packs helped with the hot flashes, fish oil and other supplements helped with any physical things they predicted, and Lexapro kept me from having a lot of mood swings. I am fine now and feel SO much better than when I was at the mercy of my evil reproductive organs. I went from 4 or 5 migraines a week to one every couple of months. Heaven!

I'm starting to see that.

Well, I am so glad that I know how to research stuff and detect bias and assess study feasibilities.

OH -- on an entirely different note, I am taking up embroidery! I dabbled in college and was decent and there's this site called "Sublime Stitchery" that has the cutest OMG patterns.

I got the "Sexy Librarians" one, among other, and after practice (I'm going to start with panties with my nickname embroidered on the butt in cursive, and then a book on the hip -- if I make mitsakes, hey, it's underwear!) I am so going to work on that! And the timing is good -- I figure after my twa days of Madam Morphine Pump, I can watch bad TV and stitch away!

Scrappy, I have no history of reproductive cancers, and I am not even in perimenopause.

I am willing to try HRT, but I also have a female gyno who had a hyst at 38 and who is very desiring that patients inform themselves and make choices about their own care. (LOVE HER.) I am already in Celexa and honestly, my depression is ok EXCEPT for PMS exacerbations which seriously make me take one day off a month because I am in such a black hole of depression mixed with pain.

I've been reading about supplements, because really, I just want to do everything I can to feel good. If you have suggestions about things that worked for you, I would be very interested.

Of course, I won't know what my symptoms, if any, will be until after my slice-n-dice, but forewarned is forearmed, I s'pose.

I took Promensil and it seemed to help a lot. Much cheaper via eBay than in drug stores. It didn't help my sister at all, but HRT didn't help her either. Every person is different. My GF had a hysterectomy at 40ish and didn't take anything and had no real issues. She walked into the office for a checkup 2 weeks after and the receptionist thought her surgery was postponed because she was so chipper and normal.

Erin, my mom had a hysterectomy when she was in her late forties and has had good luck with HRT, though I know she got worried about it when all the negative buzz started earlier this decade. I'm pretty sure she stuck with it, but I'll ask her. Her recovery was rough, but she was also a decade older, so I don't think it's likely comparable.

Barb, excellent smackdown!

Anne, a belated Happy Birthday to you! I'm sorry I was so distracted and didn't say so yesterday.

I'm sorry I was so distracted and didn't say so yesterday.

Completely understandable, given that stunt your dad pulled on you.

Anyhow, thanks for the birthday wishes!

I had an good (if not pleasant) conversation with my mom this morning. Basically, I got called on my hypocrisy wrt political discussions - in other words, my tendency to crack jokes and vent about Bush and Cheney, but to get very defensive and sniffy when other people do the same about this one. I don't agree with many of her political views, but yeah, I was not playing fair. While it led to a protracted full body cringe, it did get me to thinking.

Oh, Erin, that sucks a lot. Good luck finding a forum somewhere with some help--there's gotta be somewhere to look who knows and can advise?

Kristin, that's so awful--definitely try to explain to him how bad it'd be if it had gone the other way!! I mean, yay and thank god that it didn't, but what if you'd missed since September the chance to be making the most of your months?