Post menopausal diagnosis

Hi EP17

Welcome to the Womb group.

Am sorry to hear that you have had some symptoms and that you have now been referred to the MDT.

I can understand how worrying it is.

What would likely happen now is that the MDT will discuss all your results at their next meeting (at my hospital they happen once a week) and then they would normally contact you and ask you to come in to discuss what they feel is best. Depending on which day the MDT meets, I would expect you to hear within the week. For my hospital for eg; the MDT is on a Thursday am so I would be contacted on a Thursday pm. As your MRI was done on the 23rd- it may delay it as the results would have to be back in time for the MDT- so if not back for the MDT next week, then would be the week after. 

As you have had some discharge and your lining is slightly thicker than normal plus the free fluid- this would normally lead to a hysteroscopy/biopsy. Sometimes this can be difficult if the cervix can not be dilated. Sometimes this can happen in older ladies. It is only a biopsy that can say for sure whether any cancer is present. 

A lot will depend on what the MRI indicates. If it shows that it is likely to be a cancer then I would expect the next step would be to discuss a hysterectomy. My hysterectomy was done 4 weeks after my first symptom (a bleed) It can vary between hospitals though. Some ladies do wait longer. 

So to answer your question, if the MRI results get back before the MDT then I would expect you to hear something within the week (it may be a phone call to invite you in for an appointment) If the MRI results don't get back in time, then likely the following week. If they do recommend a hysterectomy- it may well be done before Christmas. Its hard to predict because it will depend on how busy your hospital is. I found that after the MDT, things moved forward very quickly. For me it was a consultant appointment on the Friday and surgery on the Monday. 

In the meantime, please do give the Support Line a call if you want to chat things through. 

Hope this helps a bit.

Jane

Thank you Jane. There’s so much information here but I just couldn’t work out what the timeline might be like. Hopefully I’ll hear something sometime this week.

After my diagnosis there was a wait of around a week/week and a half before I saw consultant. That appointment was followed the same day by my pre op- so things can move quickly once they have the info they need. They will need the MRI results to come back to be put to the MDT so if by any chance they are delayed this week, you should hear next week. 

I got a call from the consultant today giving me an appointment for next Tuesday to discuss my treatment and he said we would be talking about a hysterectomy. It’s sort of what I expected.

Can you give me an idea of the questions I should definitely ask when I see him?

Hi, I had a hysterectomy last Tuesday and was home on Thursday!. 

Ask if you can have the injection in your spine (It's like an epidural but I don't know if its called that) it's amazing. I had no pain what so ever on waking up. 

Ask if they are taking your ovaries, it is likely they are. I had womb, ovaries, fallopian tubes and cervix removed via key hole surgery. Having the ovaries removed will mean going into menopause so you might want to ask about that. 

Ask if you are likly to have Chemo therapy after the operation. I have to have 6 sessions. One every 3 weeks so chemo will go on over 4 months and they said I am likly to loose my hair, which I am deverstated about, but it's better than loosing your life. 

Once they take everything out, they send everything to the lab to be looked at microscopically and from the results, they can tell if it has spread or not. I am waiting for an appointment to be given the results currently. 

If you would like to ask anything else, please get in touch. I wish you the very best for the future. X

I’m glad the epidural helped you Flowerpower22, but I didn’t have one (I didn’t want one tbh - I was told also that they’re only given if they think the operation might warrant one) and I also had no pain on coming round from the general anaesthetic. 

I don’t need to worry about going into the menopause as I’m over 60. My main worry, aside from what stage it’s at, is having lymphoedema if they remove some lymph nodes. 
Also I’m overweight and was wondering does that mean operating laparoscopically is less likely. Would the surgeon use my caesarean scar instead?

I was overweight (BMI of 35) and my op was laparoscopic. I was told the aim would be laparoscopic unless he saw something once he started that would indicate open would be more appropriate. Whether or not they sample lymph nodes usually depends on predicted grade/stage - I was predicted grade 1 stage 1a so I didn’t have any lymph nodes sampled. 

Oh that’s reassuring. My BMI, just calculated, is 32. I suppose now it’s just wait and see what stage he thinks I’m at on Tuesday.

I had the same BMI and had robotic laproscopic; they found the sentinel node so only had that taken. I was stage 1 or 3 pre op, and 1b or 4 post. Mine was 10/9 and only side effect so far seems to be numbness in the groin area which hasn’t fullly gone but its doesn’t cause any issues. Good luck