Flare ups after a total hysterectomy

[Joylene]

I had a total hysterectomy in 1997 which took care of my symptoms.  The last couple of weeks I have had symptoms  that feel like my endometriosis has returned.  Is this possible?

[cherpain]

I've also had a hysterectomy in 1997 and was on replacement therapy for 15 years.  2 and 4 years later I was suffering the same pain and the doctor did a laporoscope  both times.  Afterward I felt better.  But the replacement therapy I was on (estrogen) was causing it to continue to grow.  My Dr. said there is no way of absolutely getting all of the endo when they do a hysterectomy and then being on the estrogen, what was left was still growing.  So I stopped taking the estrogen and it got better.  I've done so much research on this that I now know any food with soy or fried food or caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate) makes my achy abdomen return as all these foods are estrogen triggers.  My Dr. still says he believes it to be endometriosis they couldn't get years ago.  If you look online at endometriosis diet and follow that you will get results.  The triggers seem to be wheat, caffeine, soy and high fats.  I'm struggling right now because I've been back on coffee for awhile. I love my morning cups.  But every time I do this I suffer.  So there really is something to following the diet.  More surgeries will only create more scar tissue and you don't want that.  Hope this helps you!  Good luck

[AnnieBrooke]

Endometriosis is when some endometrial cells escape from the uterus and attach to other places inside your abdominal cavity, and they wax and wane with your periods, and hurt.  If your hysterectomy had not been so long ago, and you had been hurting every month since having it, you could maybe figure that there is still endometriosis in your body cavity somewhere and it is somehow getting subtle signals from your brain (though I have never heard this can happen) since you have no ovaries to give the signal.  But you have had no symptoms for 13 years, which would suggest they either got all the endometriosis out or starved it of its triggers by performing the hysterectomy.  It seems like, in 13 years, any endometrial cells would have been long gone.   And it couldn't be a sudden appearance of new endometriosis -- without a uterus, there is no source for endometrial cells to come from and stray out into the abdomen.  The only thing I can think of is pretty far-fetched, and that would be that the endometriosis you had did not get removed, just your uterus and ovaries, and now you are having some kind of odd hormonal flukey thing happening in your body, and it has "woken up" the sleeping endometrial cells that had strayed years ago and just stayed where they are.  I'd sure feel kind of dumb offering this theory to a doctor, but if it keeps bothering you, drop by the doc for a hormone workup.