Radical hysterectomy recovery

Hi Tracy3210 

I’m sorry to hear you do not feel fully recovered from your surgery yet and are still experiencing some issues.

I didn’t have the same surgery myself, as mine was a much more extensive surgery for recurrence, so I wasn’t in the same situation. But lots of other ladies have had a radical hysterectomy and will hopefully come along to reply when they read your post.

You’ve said you have an appointment coming up soon with your oncologist, so make sure that you tell them about your bladder and bowel issues and the pains you’re experiencing. They may wish to carry out some further tests, but I hope there’s nothing to be concerned about and your recovery is just taking a bit longer than you hoped it would.

Sarah xx

Hi Tracy3210,

I had the same surgery for the same stage as you in February 2025, so just coming up to a year ago. I can identify with pretty much everything you’ve said in your post. Here’s my experience:

Recovery took a lot longer and was much more gradual than I had anticipated, with new things starting at various points rather than a straightforward linear recovery. Constipation was a major issue for me and I only managed to be completely free of medication for this a couple of months ago. I started to wonder whether things would ever improve or whether this was what it would always be like for me, but it has improved.

I had to keep reminding myself to take things at my own pace, to be kind to myself and to not give up hope. Something that gave me a boost was when I saw friends/family who I hadn’t seen since earlier in my recovery and they would comment on how much I had improved since they last saw me - this reminded me that I was actually improving when it didn’t always feel like that on a day-to-day basis.

A friend I was chatting to a few months ago told me that they’d had (different) surgery a few years ago and it wasn’t until about a year after surgery that they felt properly recovered. I found it useful to know this and it helped me to feel that what seemed to me like very slow recovery might actually be fairly ‘normal’ which encouraged me to be patient with myself.

I hope you get some support and reassurance at your upcoming appointment. I found my appointments really reassuring when I went in with a list of things I was struggling with/worried about and they would talk through each thing, let me know that it’s a normal part of recovery, nothing to worry about, I was doing really well and I needed to remember that I’d had major surgery that would take time to recover from. I hope that this is also the case for you.

Best wishes for your continued recovery,

Louise x

Thank you - it’s good to hear that it all seems to be part of the recovery. I was maybe too keen to be thinking all would be good after the 8 weeks recovery time I read online. I’m just so desperate to move on from it all and all of these setbacks keep being a kick in the teeth (I’m sick of moaning to ha)

Glad to hear your recovery has been improving hope it continues that way