3d ago
Okay so I need to just... say this out loud somewhere. I'm 39. I had a bilateral oophorectomy eight weeks ago and I genuinely was not prepared for what happened to my body like the DAY after surgery. Not gradually. Not a slow fade. Day. One. The hot flashes woke me up every 45 minutes that first night in the hospital and I kept thinking it was a fever, kept buzzing the nurse. She was kind about it but I could tell she was like, honey, this is just menopause now. And I did not have a framework for that. I had read about menopause as this thing that creeps up on you over years. I had zero years. I had one afternoon. I've been keeping notes on my phone since week two because I couldn't hold it all in my head for my follow-up and I knew I'd cry and forget everything the second I sat down in front of my surgeon. So now I have this running log. Sleep quality (rough scale 1-10, mostly 3s and 4s). Mood stuff. Which hour the worst flash hit. What I'd eaten that day because someone in a cancer support group I joined mentioned that certain foods seemed to spike theirs and I wanted to see if that tracked for me too. The food thing is real by the way. When my appetite came back around week three I was only managing like small soft things anyway, scrambled eggs, soup, yogurt, nothing spicy or heavy. And those weeks were honestly calmer symptom-wise? Could be coincidence. Could be the gentler eating. I'm not claiming anything, just... it's in my notes. I have my first proper post-op follow-up in two weeks and I'm building a question list. Top of it right now: what does "normal" even mean for surgical menopause at 39, because everything I find online is written for women 20 years older than me and I feel like I'm reading instructions for someone else's body. Anyone else been through this and found language that actually worked with their care team? I feel like I'm showing up to appointments slightly out of step with the script they're used to running.