”Do people get older after hysterectomy?” ”Can I still have a normal sex life after hysterectomy?” ”Will the hysterectomy affect the couple’s relationship?” Many women who suffer from uterine lesions and need to have their uterus removed face such concerns, especially for patients with benign lesions such as uterine fibroids and adenomyosis, unlike cancer patients, there is nothing to hesitate about when it comes to the choice between saving life and preserving the uterus, and benign lesions will not kill anyone without cutting the uterus. Although I have explained countless times about hysterectomy, it is still difficult to eliminate the patient’s concerns. Today, I met a patient who gave me a new understanding of this matter – the “illusion of disability” caused by surgery to patients. Guo Mingchuan, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen, China “I am worried that after the removal of the uterus, she will be a hole, and the couple will not feel good in the room together!” This speaks to a key point that clinicians have long ignored. When our body is traumatized, we will instinctively adopt protective behaviors for the traumatized area, such as avoiding local force and touching, such self-defense mechanism is conducive to the recovery of the traumatized area. For the parts controlled by somatic nerves (trunk and limbs), such feelings are very intuitive, because the traumatized parts belong to the parts with more sensitive nerves, and we can judge the degree of recovery of trauma by ourselves based on the feelings of traumatized parts. As time goes by, this protective behavior slowly disappears and is forgotten. A closed loop of “trauma – healing – recovery” is formed in the brain. Unlike surgical procedures on the internal organs, which are not as sensitive, there is no way to determine the degree of recovery from trauma through somatic sensations after the internal organs have undergone surgery. The patient only knows that there is a wound there, but does not know when the wound grew up. In the consciousness of the brain, only the consciousness of trauma is remembered, and there is no consciousness of healing. “This is a closed loop, so it may leave a long-lasting “illusion of disability”. This is how the idea of “after hysterectomy, there is a hole there” comes about. Before the operation, the patient thinks this way, and after the operation, some people who did not think this way may think this way, because they cannot feel the “trauma-healing-recovery” process. This is a complete process. The patient does not feel it, and the spouse does not feel it. Therefore, not only women but also their spouses may have concerns about the “hole” and feel unsafe when having intercourse. It is necessary to provide targeted psychological interventions to the patient and her spouse in this regard before surgery. A simple total hysterectomy (intrafascial hysterectomy or extrafascial hysterectomy) or subtotal hysterectomy does not affect the normal sexual life and there is no “hole” that the couple should be concerned about. Especially for women with chronic vaginal bleeding or severe menstrual cramps, their sex life is basically of little quality before hysterectomy, and they may even be sexually deprived for many years. They are afraid of hysterectomy because they are afraid of aging on the one hand, and they are also afraid that it will affect the couple’s life and their relationship. As long as the ovaries are there, as long as the ovaries are functional, there will be no so-called “aging”, and even if they do age, it is a natural process that occurs as people age. The “absence” of the uterus is innocent. Usually, such women are worried about the male partner’s dissatisfaction when it comes to sexual life. Why is this so? This is because women suffering from this disease, due to disease factors, due to long-term pain, bleeding and other reasons, perhaps never had the opportunity to experience a good sex life, for them, sex is just a formality, because they have not had, naturally do not think about how they will be, only worry about the male partner will not be how. In fact, the sexual response curve of men is almost the same, nothing new, to reach the ejaculation orgasm is not difficult, the difference between the quality of sex life of men and women, does not lie in men, but in women. In other words, the degree of female response during sex is the key to determining the quality of sex life, and seeing a woman satisfied during sex is far more satisfying for men than achieving ejaculation for themselves. Therefore, if a woman’s concern about hysterectomy is due to the fear that her spouse is not satisfied with her sex life, then you need to reflect on yourself, the current situation, your own satisfaction in sexual life, or whether you are now in this situation is happy to have sex? On the contrary, after hysterectomy, as long as the woman has no concerns about coitus and is happy to have sex, the man will not have so many concerns. 1.After total hysterectomy, how long can I have intercourse? The basic healing of the open wound is also ten or so days, 2 months after surgery scar is almost solid, you can try to resume sex life. However, after a long time without intercourse, there will certainly be a sense of rawness at first, do not have a psychological shadow, this is not only after the hysterectomy will be so, women in the birth of a child, just start to resume sex will also have such a sense of rawness, so do not blame the hysterectomy. Slowly grind, there will be sexual happiness. 2, after hysterectomy, can still have an orgasm? The fact that a lot of people on Baidu are saying that the uterus is cut and the ovaries are cut is purely misleading to the public. The uterus and ovaries are different organs, if not malignant tumors, how can doctors easily remove a woman’s ovaries. The nerve distribution of the sexual reflex is concentrated in the lower third of the vagina and the clitoris, so hysterectomy does not affect orgasm, and if you feel affected, it is a psychological effect. On the contrary, without the worry of pregnancy, you can be more reckless! I once met a typical case, a patient with adenomyosis, before the removal of the uterus due to severe dysmenorrhea, long-term bleeding, painful intercourse and other reasons, completely uninterested in sex, post-operative follow-up told me that since the removal of the uterus, more and more willing to have sex (not because of the orgasm did not ask, embarrassed to ask). Finally, may you regain your long-lost “sexual happiness”!