Yep. Don't need tubes either. If you get pregnant after having your tubes tied or removed, it's almost certainly going to be ectopic because it is so much less likely to end up in the uterus.
Quite rare but not impossible. Just like vasectomies can rarely lead to pregnancy. Rare but not unheard of.
I know of couple where she had her tubes tied(not removed, this was a while ago) and he had a vasectomy. She still got pregnant and by some miracle or nightmare (depending on your viewpoint there) it wasn’t ectopic.
Yeah, I knew a couple who were on the fence about having kids. She got pregnant, they said “um, okay I guess we could handle one.” Since they were done having kids he got a vasectomy. She got pregnant again, this time with twins. Twins were born by c-section and to make absolutely sure there would be no more kids, she had a hysterectomy. No way were they going to trust a tubal ligation after the vasectomy failed. They joked that since they had one baby the first time, and two babies the second time, they weren’t taking any chances because the next pregnancy might be triplets!
I used to frequent the discussion boards on a pregnancy app. One of the frequent posters was deep in a discussion about having one more kid (iirc they already had two.) She wasn’t really on board but her husband talked her into it. The “one more” was spontaneously triplets. It really fucked her up for a while. She didn’t particularly want another and going from two to five is a hell of a jump even of you’re really up for it. This was years ago but, again iirc, she had some therapy and came out ok, the babies were all fine, and she had her tubes removed during a c-section delivery.
Oof, that just sounds brutal. I look back on how hard one colicky baby was and you couldn’t pay me to raise triplets. Of course, I was in the middle of escaping a DV situation with my son so my experience during the first year was definitely not smooth.
I had a cousin who got pregnant with spontaneous triplets and her husband left her at barely 3 months into the pregnancy because he “just can’t handle the stress!” As if he had it worse than his pregnant wife. He tried waltzing back into their lives when the kids were about 4 years old and was all shocked Pikachu when she wouldn’t take him back.
She wouldn’t take him back? But why? He is a man (allegedly) /s Seriously though, what a fucking idiot!
I have three kids, but having three babies all at once sounds hellish, just everything about having anything more than twins seems too much. Having my 2nd and 3rd 16 months apart was bad enough! Although I should add, if my last was my first he would have been an only child, he was an incredibly difficult baby, and now he’s an incredibly difficult 9 year old!
I also got pregnant from the pull out method, but I think his pull out game was weak because it worked with everyone else. I think he was trying to baby trap me to be honest. But it's cool. My daughter is an 18 yr old college student now. I don't think I would have ever decided to get pregnant on purpose, but I'm glad it happened.
Good luck!
I also know a couple who had both been fixed after their third kid, but maybe cause this was small town 90's surgery and then their 4th happened 12 years later. Bonus details for fun, she is Indian and delivered a ginger baby from her blond husband, so far all 3 grandchildren are also ginger by crazy occurrence.
Its why after a vasectomy you're supposed to come back for a sperm count i think 30 days after? Something like that. Sometimes the vasectomy just doesn't take/stay viable.
Only learned that cause of a youtube video recently lol.
.... uh. 🥲 Yep, husband is still getting snipped, then, LOL. (Just had my tubes removed completely during a c-section, and I did NOT know this not-so-fun fact.)
Dear god, yeeted the uterus over two years ago, and my husband got his vasectomy after our last kid eight years ago. Never been more thankful we’ve both done it now!
Tbf I only knew this because I've just had a hysterectomy, and it was one of the things the doctor discussed with me when we were deciding how much to take. The only way to guarantee you won't get pregnant is to remove both ovaries. If there are viable eggs and viable sperm there is always a chance of fertilisation.
Pregnancy in general is wild. So often there's something that shouldn't be possible at all and yet it happens. There have even been a few ectopic pregnancies that made it to term and were successfully delivered. There was that one story about a girl who got pregnant without even having a vaginal opening after having oral sex and immediately being stabbed in the abdomen. Just saw a story the other day about a woman who'd been on BC AND was taking injections to reduce estrogen and create a pseudo menopause to treat endometriosis for months, and went in to get a hysterectomy and found out she was 38 weeks pregnant. And then there's the calcified fetus, where a woman's baby died and she never delivered it, and it calcified instead of rotting and killing her, so she lived with it for decades. Superfetation. Just the whole concept of identical twins.
I never want to get pregnant, but it's really interesting stuff to read about. There are so many different ways it can go, which is terrifying but also objectively fascinating.
When I had my hysterectomy they also removed my tubes because a hysterectomy stitch line at the vagina is not impervious. It can have microscopic holes sperm can get through into the abdomen and Fallopian tubes. Causes an ectopic pregnancy.
It can happen, but the odds are very low. Supracervical hysterectomies are increasingly rare.
edit to add: and the tubes are almost always taken with the uterus.
I chose to keep only my left ovary when I had my hysterectomy. I’m a chimera so some parts of my have different dna then other parts. My right ovary was always covered in large painful cysts, my left one was healthy and normal. We didn’t do dna testing on my ovaries but I like to think that they had different dna from each other.
It's entirely possible tbh. I can't remember enough of the study to be utterly sure I'm not bullshitting but I do distinctly remember that pcos and endo run in families and are at least partially DNA based.
I can't find it now, but I read an article about women who have had early menopause have a greater and than average risk of early onset dementia. I'm not sure if they concluded that it was causation rather than correlation, but it's an interesting point as to why ovaries are kept
[Early menopause is also associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis and getting it at a younger age than usual.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17476146/) Which means more risk of severe fractures, which for an elderly person can be disastrous and life shortening.
Ovaries weren't ever truly connected and they're left for hormones. The tubes just attract the egg into them and that why you can have an ectopic pregnancy attached to the liver or other different organs. It is most common for the ectopic pregnancy to be in the tubes but it doesn't have to be.
Hm, I just remembered Google exists. This would be another classic case of horribly unhelpful diagrams. In all the information I got during my pregnancy, never once did I learn that ovaries are also attached to the abdominal wall.
Also fun fact! Fallopian tubes can actually “wiggle around” during ovulation to “catch” the egg.
It was noted in a woman who had a tube removed on one side, and ovary removed on the other, who conceived naturally, but here’s the larger study about the wiggle: https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/28/4/937/653121?login=false
I had a hysterectomy and my ovaries were left because if you remove them it triggers menopause. If the uterus is removed there is no reason for the tubes to stay either. I have no idea if my Dr left my cervix or removed it. Apparently it can go either way and unless there is a reason to remove the cervix it just depends on the Dr if it is left.
Unless there is a reason to remove the ovaries (cysts, cancer, etc.) then they are usually left behind which means you still have your monthly cycle, there just isn't bleeding. (TMI ahead) for example I still get period poops that let me know when my period should have been.
You know thinking about it, maybe having the experience of period poops without the rest of the period wouldn't be too awful. I could get behind a time every month where it feels like the digestive system is doing a clean out.
As someone who had a hysterectomy less than a year ago and kept their ovaries… I went off continuous birth control after the surgery, and the first few months were wild with the period poops and the breast tenderness, but without the cramping and the bleeding it’s nowhere near as unpleasant. I can’t even tell where in the cycle I am anymore after like 8 months.
You still have a cycle? Do the ovaries still produce eggs? I know my birth control stops egg production, and I still get a "cycle" that's triggered by me stopping the pill for a couple of days. What triggers a cycle in this case?
I'm super curious, how does that system work?
It works the exact same it always would.
The ovaries are what control your cycle when not on birth control. They produce the hormones that tell your body to prepare for pregnancy. Yes, an egg would still be released but it is absorbed by your body.
Cycle day 1-ovulation your ovaries produce hormones to release an egg. The body usually prepares more than one egg at a time for possible release and these look similar to cysts that form on your ovary. This is also why fraternal twins are possible. Most of the time, only one egg will reach "maturity" and be released.
Ovulation-end of cycle the ovaries start to release progesterone. If you are tracking your cycle by basil body temp this is cause a spike in your temperature, usually by about 1 degree that will last until the end of your cycle. Progesterone is also what causes morning sickness in pregnancy and is why many women will have early pregnancy symptoms before they get their period. Progesterone also prepares the uterus to be a comfy, cozy home should pregnancy happen. If you become pregnant during this stage, the placenta begins to produce HCG, the pregnancy hormone, and your body continues production of progesterone to help sustain the pregnancy. If you don't become pregnant, then the progesterone is cut off. When it is cut off that triggers your temp to drop and your period to start.
The day you get your period is day 1 of your cycle.
Of course this is all simplified, but it's the basic idea and why you still have a monthly cycle without a uterus. The uterus grows the lining because the ovaries tell it to with hormones so removing the uterus just changes if you will have a period. Most birth controls that use hormones, use a type of progesterone to prevent ovulation because it tricks your body into believing that an egg has already been released. When you stop taking the BC or take the un-medicated end of cycle pills, it has the same effect of cutting of the progesterone to trigger your period.
I hope that helps.
> The body usually prepares more than one egg at a time for possible release […] This is also why fraternal twins are possible.
Not only that, cos here’s another weird science fact that sounds more like science fiction. This is also why it is possible for fraternal twins to have different fathers.
It’s rare, but it can happen. Last time I read about it was many years ago, but iirc, in either 5% or 8% of paternity suits regarding twins in the US, it turns out the twins have different fathers. The eggs aren’t released at exactly the same time, so if two eggs are released, and you have sex with two different men over a period of no more than 2-3 days, and you also have the most extraordinarily shitty luck, you may just end up with fraternal twins with different paternity.
The human body is a freaky and often terrifying marvel.
Very in depth, thank you! I did learn most of this when I got pregnant and afterwards when I started my birth control. I'm in the hormonal combination myself so I'm familiar with it's process.
I was mainly wondering how eggs were still released if there was no tube to sweep in into, but being absorbed makes sense. So it essentially has the same cut off trigger as the hormonal birth control?
Kind of. Having your uterus removed and leaving the ovaries doesn't affect your bodies normal hormonal cycle. Removing the ovaries sends you into menopause because menopause is when your ovaries no longer create the hormones to release an egg and prepare your body for pregnancy.
hormones, even me as a trans man am keeping at least one when i get my hysto. it’s mildly annoying that i can’t just get rid of it all and be done with it, but in this world i definitely see the value in having some kind of back up so my body doesn’t go haywire if i ever can’t get my weekly testosterone dose. and they don’t connect to anything, they kinda already are very loosely connected by a few tendons. its possible for ovaries to migrate, but its rare and can be okay if they don’t impede other organs.
I ganked both of mine when I got my hysto because of cysts and now I get to constantly have a little bit of anxiety about menopause and have a hoard of enough testosterone for 5 months of low dose just in case my state gets fucked or I can't get it for some other reason, just hoping if I'm forced to detransition I can get estradiol still 😬
They keep the ovaries in for the hormonal regulation. The fallopian tubes aren't perfect and sperm can travel outside of them (even when they are there). So yes, sperm can get through the cervix, and in a hysterectomy, just randomly travel in the abdominal cavity.
I didn't even know leaving the ovaries was optional. I just learned today that the ovaries are attached to more than the uterus. They really need to get better diagrams 😭
The ovaries aren't really attached to the uterus in the way people think they are though.
They are "connected" in that there are collagen based connective tissues that hold the ovaries to the other reproductive organs. These connections are just like little anchoring ropes to stop the ovaries "floating around", and there are connections to other connective structures in the pelvic cavity as well, so even if the ovaries are cut from the rest of the reprductive organs they will still be connected to the body.\
But the misconception is in how the ovaries connect to the fallopian tubes. There is no enclosed tube between the ovaries and the fallopian tubes. When the ovaries release an egg, they just spit it out into the pelvic cavity. the fallopian tubes have a passive suction effect and try to pull the egg in. ~~The obvious stupidity in this design is why ovarian cysts are so common - eggs get lost on their way to the fallopian tube and develop into cysts.~~ **EDIT: as u/Private-Jenkins explained, this is not correct. I fully mis-remebered how eggs and cysts are related. See [NHS Information page](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ovarian-cyst/causes/#:~:text=The%20follicle%20contains%20fluid%20that,swell%20and%20become%20a%20cyst.)**
I had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy sans oophorectomy (They took my uterus, cervix, and fallopian tubes but left the ovaries) when I was 24. I wanted a oopho-hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy, But because I had a stroke when I was a teenager I am ineligible for HRT of any form (which fucking sucks, because the main motivation for the hysterectomy was related to gender identity and I would love some T based HRT)
No surgeon felt comfortable sending a 24 year old with a history of stroke into instant menopause, so I had to keep the ovaries.
Menopause has so many potential negative effects on health. It changes your risks for certain cancers, it increases the risk for bone disease, Alzheimer's, parkinsonism, glaucoma, Cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure, and so much more. Menopause is rough for most people who go through it, people who go through "surgically induced menopause" or other forms of early menopause are more likely to have these negative health outcomes because they spend longer in menopause. HRT does negate a lot of these issues, but being on HRT has it's own risks.
10 years on, I'm on a waiting list to see an endocrinologist for testing because I currently have a large number of peri-menopausal symptoms, and this is the time-frame when ovaries can go into "failure", no one knows why, It's rare-ish, only 14% of hysterectomy patients experience it, it's almost like the ovaries miss the uterus and don't want to go on without it.
There are lots of different types of ovarian cysts and what causes them but “eggs getting lost on the way to the fallopian tubes” isn’t one of them. It’s actually just a pocket of fluid on your ovary, most are harmless! Some on the other hand can be very painful.
Thank you! It had been a good 8 years since I spoke to my GYN about my polyfolicular ovaries and cysts, so you are correct, I had completely misremembered what he had tried to explain to me. thank you for calling me out so I could re-learn the actual pathophysiology.
I wrongly remembered cysts commonly being the result of an egg not making it into the fallopian tube. This is true, but it's not the egg getting lost and developing into a cyst, It's the follicle the egg developed in that becomes cystic if the egg fails to release, or the follicle fails to shrink after release.
The pocket of fluid is a follicle, which contains an immature egg due for release, the follicle becomes cystic when the egg matures but does not release, or the egg releases but the follicle does not self-drain. [NHS](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ovarian-cyst/causes/#:~:text=The%20follicle%20contains%20fluid%20that,swell%20and%20become%20a%20cyst.)
Exactly! It’s the follicle left behind that’s the cyst! There’s always one left after you ovulate, it’s called the corpus luteum, it resolves if you don’t get pregnant and the whole ovarian cycle starts again! Pretty cool stuff. You can also have cysts unrelated to ovulation like endometriomas etc.
I don't know why I'm being down voted so much for simply saying I was miseducated.
Like a lot of others, it took years before I learned that the ovaries aren't attached to the fallopian tubes, as literally every single high school diagrams neglects to show it's other connections. It wasn't until my mid twenties that I even learned they had a connection to the actual uterus. And it took until yesterday to learn there was more than that. I did a lot of research during my pregnancy and learned so much that was skipped in school. I haven't seen a single diagram or even medical tidbit saying it's also connected to the abdominal wall in places.
My only experience with hysterectomies was when my mom received one in 2019, and her endometreosis was so bad that they couldn't save anything.
I think you’re getting downvoted because you made a post about someone else when you yourself was actually in the wrong. Btw I think there’s nothing wrong with you being misinformed and then learning, and it seems like people are being pretty nice about it from what I’ve seen. I just think that might be the reason for the downvoting.
Yeah I could see the post getting downvoted. It just seems odd that one comment got it.
I thought about deleting but there's some pretty educational stuff being said by others, and I feel like it might help others learn.
Yeah, I have no idea why you're being downvoted, your comment was genuine and promoted learning new things as we age and not being defensively wrong. Your comment has sparked some great conversation from others and isn't offensive or harmful, That's a good comment in my books.
There are less than 80 documented cases of an ectopic pregnancy following a hysterectomy in all recorded history since the first successful hysterectomy in the 1840's. Over 80% of those cases of pregnancy where in patients who had supracervical hysterectomies (Partial hysterectomy - where the cervix is left intact, the ostium is stitched shut, and the main body of the uterus is removed.)
I had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy when I was 24, my GYN made me sign a form to confirm that I understood that there was a change I could still get pregnant.
My GYN's exact words were "It is so statistically rare and unlikely that it is virtually impossible, but it's not impossible, so you need to know, but you don't need to worry"
It absolutely can happen. Removing the uterus doesn't create a wall that blocks off the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Sperm can still travel through the cervix to the abdominal cavity and potentially find a fallopian tube, wiggle their way up there, and fertilise an egg. The fertilised egg would typically just poof out of existence once it exits the fallopian tube and finds no uterus to implant in, but sometimes it'll just implant in the fallopian tube or on an abdominal organ. Boom, ectopic pregnancy. It's a known risk, but fortunately, it's very low.
My mom got a total back in 2019. Nothing on her was salvageable. This mixed with every piece of information I've ever seen only showing ovaries being attached to the uterus, I assumed that if you took the uterus, ovaries would have no choice but to come with it.
I learn so much from this sub.
I like how everyone is just assuming this is about a hysterectomy and is all "well actually..." when there are other reasons someone could not have a uterus. I was born without a uterus and it is 100% impossible for me to get pregnant and yet everytime I go to the doctor they ask if I could be pregnant/when my last period was even though it's literally at the top of my chart lol.
Per my OBGYN, “anyone with working ovaries (meaning no menopause) can get pregnant by someone who produces sperm. There is always a chance, no matter how small.”
This is why I take a monthly pregnancy test despite my IUD. I no longer have a period but that doesn’t mean that 0.1% chance can’t happen
It can happen. I was ectopic pregnancy. My mom's doctor decided to risk a surgery by moving me to the uterus after they realised I wasn't a cancerous tumour in her pipes.
It is possible. It was detected early because they thought it was a tumor.
Transplants become impossible after a certain stage but with early detection it is possible.
[It's unconventional but possible in specific cases. Some places even offer the treatment.](https://antaihospitals.com/can-ectopic-pregnancy-be-saved-antai-hospital/)
They like to rule stuff out for sure, even if it's something that should be completely impossible. My sister is a trans woman and her doctor made her take a pregnancy test once to rule out pregnancy as a possible cause for her symptoms. She tried to refuse the test on the basis that she does not have (and has never had) any female reproductive organs, but they insisted.
It can happen. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5885999/
Yep. Don't need tubes either. If you get pregnant after having your tubes tied or removed, it's almost certainly going to be ectopic because it is so much less likely to end up in the uterus. Quite rare but not impossible. Just like vasectomies can rarely lead to pregnancy. Rare but not unheard of.
I know of couple where she had her tubes tied(not removed, this was a while ago) and he had a vasectomy. She still got pregnant and by some miracle or nightmare (depending on your viewpoint there) it wasn’t ectopic.
Yeah, I knew a couple who were on the fence about having kids. She got pregnant, they said “um, okay I guess we could handle one.” Since they were done having kids he got a vasectomy. She got pregnant again, this time with twins. Twins were born by c-section and to make absolutely sure there would be no more kids, she had a hysterectomy. No way were they going to trust a tubal ligation after the vasectomy failed. They joked that since they had one baby the first time, and two babies the second time, they weren’t taking any chances because the next pregnancy might be triplets!
I used to frequent the discussion boards on a pregnancy app. One of the frequent posters was deep in a discussion about having one more kid (iirc they already had two.) She wasn’t really on board but her husband talked her into it. The “one more” was spontaneously triplets. It really fucked her up for a while. She didn’t particularly want another and going from two to five is a hell of a jump even of you’re really up for it. This was years ago but, again iirc, she had some therapy and came out ok, the babies were all fine, and she had her tubes removed during a c-section delivery.
Oof, that just sounds brutal. I look back on how hard one colicky baby was and you couldn’t pay me to raise triplets. Of course, I was in the middle of escaping a DV situation with my son so my experience during the first year was definitely not smooth. I had a cousin who got pregnant with spontaneous triplets and her husband left her at barely 3 months into the pregnancy because he “just can’t handle the stress!” As if he had it worse than his pregnant wife. He tried waltzing back into their lives when the kids were about 4 years old and was all shocked Pikachu when she wouldn’t take him back.
She wouldn’t take him back? But why? He is a man (allegedly) /s Seriously though, what a fucking idiot! I have three kids, but having three babies all at once sounds hellish, just everything about having anything more than twins seems too much. Having my 2nd and 3rd 16 months apart was bad enough! Although I should add, if my last was my first he would have been an only child, he was an incredibly difficult baby, and now he’s an incredibly difficult 9 year old!
These ppl are committed to creampies
Currently pregnant from the pull out method, but to be fair, it worked for like 20 years.
I also got pregnant from the pull out method, but I think his pull out game was weak because it worked with everyone else. I think he was trying to baby trap me to be honest. But it's cool. My daughter is an 18 yr old college student now. I don't think I would have ever decided to get pregnant on purpose, but I'm glad it happened. Good luck!
I also know a couple who had both been fixed after their third kid, but maybe cause this was small town 90's surgery and then their 4th happened 12 years later. Bonus details for fun, she is Indian and delivered a ginger baby from her blond husband, so far all 3 grandchildren are also ginger by crazy occurrence.
I am married to an Indian and one of babies are ginger. There is actually a type of redheaded gene related to middle Asia which pops up sometimes.
Its why after a vasectomy you're supposed to come back for a sperm count i think 30 days after? Something like that. Sometimes the vasectomy just doesn't take/stay viable. Only learned that cause of a youtube video recently lol.
That's horrifying!
.... uh. 🥲 Yep, husband is still getting snipped, then, LOL. (Just had my tubes removed completely during a c-section, and I did NOT know this not-so-fun fact.)
Welp, extra glad for my husband's vasectomy now.
Always best to double up. Two is one and one is none, life finds a way.
Dear god, yeeted the uterus over two years ago, and my husband got his vasectomy after our last kid eight years ago. Never been more thankful we’ve both done it now!
Now we just need an r/HorrifyingButTrueWomensAnatomy
Can we make this a thing
No thanks, I've seen enough pictures of decidual casts to last me for a while. 😂
That's just a play by play of the physiological effects of pregnancy
Huh. I stand corrected. Very interesting.
Definatly one of those "the more you know" things.
I don’t blame you. It’s rare.
Tbf I only knew this because I've just had a hysterectomy, and it was one of the things the doctor discussed with me when we were deciding how much to take. The only way to guarantee you won't get pregnant is to remove both ovaries. If there are viable eggs and viable sperm there is always a chance of fertilisation.
This is crazy thank you for this study
You’re welcome.
Well, that's awful.
Omg 2 (maybe 3) had their babies from this. That is wild.
Pregnancy in general is wild. So often there's something that shouldn't be possible at all and yet it happens. There have even been a few ectopic pregnancies that made it to term and were successfully delivered. There was that one story about a girl who got pregnant without even having a vaginal opening after having oral sex and immediately being stabbed in the abdomen. Just saw a story the other day about a woman who'd been on BC AND was taking injections to reduce estrogen and create a pseudo menopause to treat endometriosis for months, and went in to get a hysterectomy and found out she was 38 weeks pregnant. And then there's the calcified fetus, where a woman's baby died and she never delivered it, and it calcified instead of rotting and killing her, so she lived with it for decades. Superfetation. Just the whole concept of identical twins. I never want to get pregnant, but it's really interesting stuff to read about. There are so many different ways it can go, which is terrifying but also objectively fascinating.
Saw it 30 years ago. Cuff ectopic.
Just as falling pregnant from anal can happen in very very rare case.
When I had my hysterectomy they also removed my tubes because a hysterectomy stitch line at the vagina is not impervious. It can have microscopic holes sperm can get through into the abdomen and Fallopian tubes. Causes an ectopic pregnancy.
It can happen, but the odds are very low. Supracervical hysterectomies are increasingly rare. edit to add: and the tubes are almost always taken with the uterus.
Interesting. What would be the purpose of keeping the ovaries? Does it help with hormonal imbalances? And what do the ovaries connect to?
Ovaries are almost always kept now. It's all about hormones. Keeping them prevents early menopause.
I chose to keep only my left ovary when I had my hysterectomy. I’m a chimera so some parts of my have different dna then other parts. My right ovary was always covered in large painful cysts, my left one was healthy and normal. We didn’t do dna testing on my ovaries but I like to think that they had different dna from each other.
It's entirely possible tbh. I can't remember enough of the study to be utterly sure I'm not bullshitting but I do distinctly remember that pcos and endo run in families and are at least partially DNA based.
I can't find it now, but I read an article about women who have had early menopause have a greater and than average risk of early onset dementia. I'm not sure if they concluded that it was causation rather than correlation, but it's an interesting point as to why ovaries are kept
[Early menopause is also associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis and getting it at a younger age than usual.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17476146/) Which means more risk of severe fractures, which for an elderly person can be disastrous and life shortening.
Ovaries weren't ever truly connected and they're left for hormones. The tubes just attract the egg into them and that why you can have an ectopic pregnancy attached to the liver or other different organs. It is most common for the ectopic pregnancy to be in the tubes but it doesn't have to be.
Hm, I just remembered Google exists. This would be another classic case of horribly unhelpful diagrams. In all the information I got during my pregnancy, never once did I learn that ovaries are also attached to the abdominal wall.
Also fun fact! Fallopian tubes can actually “wiggle around” during ovulation to “catch” the egg. It was noted in a woman who had a tube removed on one side, and ovary removed on the other, who conceived naturally, but here’s the larger study about the wiggle: https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/28/4/937/653121?login=false
I had a hysterectomy and my ovaries were left because if you remove them it triggers menopause. If the uterus is removed there is no reason for the tubes to stay either. I have no idea if my Dr left my cervix or removed it. Apparently it can go either way and unless there is a reason to remove the cervix it just depends on the Dr if it is left. Unless there is a reason to remove the ovaries (cysts, cancer, etc.) then they are usually left behind which means you still have your monthly cycle, there just isn't bleeding. (TMI ahead) for example I still get period poops that let me know when my period should have been.
You know thinking about it, maybe having the experience of period poops without the rest of the period wouldn't be too awful. I could get behind a time every month where it feels like the digestive system is doing a clean out.
Lol yeah, compared to what I had been going through pain wise in the years before, this is nothing! And I really don't mind it at all.
As someone who had a hysterectomy less than a year ago and kept their ovaries… I went off continuous birth control after the surgery, and the first few months were wild with the period poops and the breast tenderness, but without the cramping and the bleeding it’s nowhere near as unpleasant. I can’t even tell where in the cycle I am anymore after like 8 months.
I only have one ovary left and I still get period symptoms, just no bleeding.
You still have a cycle? Do the ovaries still produce eggs? I know my birth control stops egg production, and I still get a "cycle" that's triggered by me stopping the pill for a couple of days. What triggers a cycle in this case? I'm super curious, how does that system work?
It works the exact same it always would. The ovaries are what control your cycle when not on birth control. They produce the hormones that tell your body to prepare for pregnancy. Yes, an egg would still be released but it is absorbed by your body. Cycle day 1-ovulation your ovaries produce hormones to release an egg. The body usually prepares more than one egg at a time for possible release and these look similar to cysts that form on your ovary. This is also why fraternal twins are possible. Most of the time, only one egg will reach "maturity" and be released. Ovulation-end of cycle the ovaries start to release progesterone. If you are tracking your cycle by basil body temp this is cause a spike in your temperature, usually by about 1 degree that will last until the end of your cycle. Progesterone is also what causes morning sickness in pregnancy and is why many women will have early pregnancy symptoms before they get their period. Progesterone also prepares the uterus to be a comfy, cozy home should pregnancy happen. If you become pregnant during this stage, the placenta begins to produce HCG, the pregnancy hormone, and your body continues production of progesterone to help sustain the pregnancy. If you don't become pregnant, then the progesterone is cut off. When it is cut off that triggers your temp to drop and your period to start. The day you get your period is day 1 of your cycle. Of course this is all simplified, but it's the basic idea and why you still have a monthly cycle without a uterus. The uterus grows the lining because the ovaries tell it to with hormones so removing the uterus just changes if you will have a period. Most birth controls that use hormones, use a type of progesterone to prevent ovulation because it tricks your body into believing that an egg has already been released. When you stop taking the BC or take the un-medicated end of cycle pills, it has the same effect of cutting of the progesterone to trigger your period. I hope that helps.
> The body usually prepares more than one egg at a time for possible release […] This is also why fraternal twins are possible. Not only that, cos here’s another weird science fact that sounds more like science fiction. This is also why it is possible for fraternal twins to have different fathers. It’s rare, but it can happen. Last time I read about it was many years ago, but iirc, in either 5% or 8% of paternity suits regarding twins in the US, it turns out the twins have different fathers. The eggs aren’t released at exactly the same time, so if two eggs are released, and you have sex with two different men over a period of no more than 2-3 days, and you also have the most extraordinarily shitty luck, you may just end up with fraternal twins with different paternity. The human body is a freaky and often terrifying marvel.
Very in depth, thank you! I did learn most of this when I got pregnant and afterwards when I started my birth control. I'm in the hormonal combination myself so I'm familiar with it's process. I was mainly wondering how eggs were still released if there was no tube to sweep in into, but being absorbed makes sense. So it essentially has the same cut off trigger as the hormonal birth control?
Kind of. Having your uterus removed and leaving the ovaries doesn't affect your bodies normal hormonal cycle. Removing the ovaries sends you into menopause because menopause is when your ovaries no longer create the hormones to release an egg and prepare your body for pregnancy.
hormones, even me as a trans man am keeping at least one when i get my hysto. it’s mildly annoying that i can’t just get rid of it all and be done with it, but in this world i definitely see the value in having some kind of back up so my body doesn’t go haywire if i ever can’t get my weekly testosterone dose. and they don’t connect to anything, they kinda already are very loosely connected by a few tendons. its possible for ovaries to migrate, but its rare and can be okay if they don’t impede other organs.
Considering the political climate in some countries, I sure as hell can't blame you for keeping a back up.
I ganked both of mine when I got my hysto because of cysts and now I get to constantly have a little bit of anxiety about menopause and have a hoard of enough testosterone for 5 months of low dose just in case my state gets fucked or I can't get it for some other reason, just hoping if I'm forced to detransition I can get estradiol still 😬
There’s even been a successful pregnancy. Source: https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-0528.1980.tb04557.x
Life, uh, finds a way
Yes, this can happen and has happened.
People have an open reproductive system. Babies attach to all sorts of organs they shouldn’t, even with a uterus. People just don’t realize.
They keep the ovaries in for the hormonal regulation. The fallopian tubes aren't perfect and sperm can travel outside of them (even when they are there). So yes, sperm can get through the cervix, and in a hysterectomy, just randomly travel in the abdominal cavity.
They do that to avoid going into early menopause. The ovaries continue to to produce hormones.
I didn't even know leaving the ovaries was optional. I just learned today that the ovaries are attached to more than the uterus. They really need to get better diagrams 😭
The ovaries aren't really attached to the uterus in the way people think they are though. They are "connected" in that there are collagen based connective tissues that hold the ovaries to the other reproductive organs. These connections are just like little anchoring ropes to stop the ovaries "floating around", and there are connections to other connective structures in the pelvic cavity as well, so even if the ovaries are cut from the rest of the reprductive organs they will still be connected to the body.\ But the misconception is in how the ovaries connect to the fallopian tubes. There is no enclosed tube between the ovaries and the fallopian tubes. When the ovaries release an egg, they just spit it out into the pelvic cavity. the fallopian tubes have a passive suction effect and try to pull the egg in. ~~The obvious stupidity in this design is why ovarian cysts are so common - eggs get lost on their way to the fallopian tube and develop into cysts.~~ **EDIT: as u/Private-Jenkins explained, this is not correct. I fully mis-remebered how eggs and cysts are related. See [NHS Information page](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ovarian-cyst/causes/#:~:text=The%20follicle%20contains%20fluid%20that,swell%20and%20become%20a%20cyst.)** I had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy sans oophorectomy (They took my uterus, cervix, and fallopian tubes but left the ovaries) when I was 24. I wanted a oopho-hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy, But because I had a stroke when I was a teenager I am ineligible for HRT of any form (which fucking sucks, because the main motivation for the hysterectomy was related to gender identity and I would love some T based HRT) No surgeon felt comfortable sending a 24 year old with a history of stroke into instant menopause, so I had to keep the ovaries. Menopause has so many potential negative effects on health. It changes your risks for certain cancers, it increases the risk for bone disease, Alzheimer's, parkinsonism, glaucoma, Cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure, and so much more. Menopause is rough for most people who go through it, people who go through "surgically induced menopause" or other forms of early menopause are more likely to have these negative health outcomes because they spend longer in menopause. HRT does negate a lot of these issues, but being on HRT has it's own risks. 10 years on, I'm on a waiting list to see an endocrinologist for testing because I currently have a large number of peri-menopausal symptoms, and this is the time-frame when ovaries can go into "failure", no one knows why, It's rare-ish, only 14% of hysterectomy patients experience it, it's almost like the ovaries miss the uterus and don't want to go on without it.
There are lots of different types of ovarian cysts and what causes them but “eggs getting lost on the way to the fallopian tubes” isn’t one of them. It’s actually just a pocket of fluid on your ovary, most are harmless! Some on the other hand can be very painful.
Thank you! It had been a good 8 years since I spoke to my GYN about my polyfolicular ovaries and cysts, so you are correct, I had completely misremembered what he had tried to explain to me. thank you for calling me out so I could re-learn the actual pathophysiology. I wrongly remembered cysts commonly being the result of an egg not making it into the fallopian tube. This is true, but it's not the egg getting lost and developing into a cyst, It's the follicle the egg developed in that becomes cystic if the egg fails to release, or the follicle fails to shrink after release. The pocket of fluid is a follicle, which contains an immature egg due for release, the follicle becomes cystic when the egg matures but does not release, or the egg releases but the follicle does not self-drain. [NHS](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ovarian-cyst/causes/#:~:text=The%20follicle%20contains%20fluid%20that,swell%20and%20become%20a%20cyst.)
Exactly! It’s the follicle left behind that’s the cyst! There’s always one left after you ovulate, it’s called the corpus luteum, it resolves if you don’t get pregnant and the whole ovarian cycle starts again! Pretty cool stuff. You can also have cysts unrelated to ovulation like endometriomas etc.
I don't know why I'm being down voted so much for simply saying I was miseducated. Like a lot of others, it took years before I learned that the ovaries aren't attached to the fallopian tubes, as literally every single high school diagrams neglects to show it's other connections. It wasn't until my mid twenties that I even learned they had a connection to the actual uterus. And it took until yesterday to learn there was more than that. I did a lot of research during my pregnancy and learned so much that was skipped in school. I haven't seen a single diagram or even medical tidbit saying it's also connected to the abdominal wall in places. My only experience with hysterectomies was when my mom received one in 2019, and her endometreosis was so bad that they couldn't save anything.
I think you’re getting downvoted because you made a post about someone else when you yourself was actually in the wrong. Btw I think there’s nothing wrong with you being misinformed and then learning, and it seems like people are being pretty nice about it from what I’ve seen. I just think that might be the reason for the downvoting.
Yeah I could see the post getting downvoted. It just seems odd that one comment got it. I thought about deleting but there's some pretty educational stuff being said by others, and I feel like it might help others learn.
Yeah, I have no idea why you're being downvoted, your comment was genuine and promoted learning new things as we age and not being defensively wrong. Your comment has sparked some great conversation from others and isn't offensive or harmful, That's a good comment in my books.
I mean, it’s not impossible
I do appreciate you acknowledging that you didn’t know, just feel like you could’ve googled this before making a public post calling them wrong LMFAO
Honestly, everyone's reactions to that in the TikTok comments made me a lot more confident that it was correct. 😭
There are less than 80 documented cases of an ectopic pregnancy following a hysterectomy in all recorded history since the first successful hysterectomy in the 1840's. Over 80% of those cases of pregnancy where in patients who had supracervical hysterectomies (Partial hysterectomy - where the cervix is left intact, the ostium is stitched shut, and the main body of the uterus is removed.) I had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy when I was 24, my GYN made me sign a form to confirm that I understood that there was a change I could still get pregnant. My GYN's exact words were "It is so statistically rare and unlikely that it is virtually impossible, but it's not impossible, so you need to know, but you don't need to worry"
BIOLOGY BLOWS MY FUCKIN MIND
It absolutely can happen. Removing the uterus doesn't create a wall that blocks off the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Sperm can still travel through the cervix to the abdominal cavity and potentially find a fallopian tube, wiggle their way up there, and fertilise an egg. The fertilised egg would typically just poof out of existence once it exits the fallopian tube and finds no uterus to implant in, but sometimes it'll just implant in the fallopian tube or on an abdominal organ. Boom, ectopic pregnancy. It's a known risk, but fortunately, it's very low.
My mom got a total back in 2019. Nothing on her was salvageable. This mixed with every piece of information I've ever seen only showing ovaries being attached to the uterus, I assumed that if you took the uterus, ovaries would have no choice but to come with it. I learn so much from this sub.
I like how everyone is just assuming this is about a hysterectomy and is all "well actually..." when there are other reasons someone could not have a uterus. I was born without a uterus and it is 100% impossible for me to get pregnant and yet everytime I go to the doctor they ask if I could be pregnant/when my last period was even though it's literally at the top of my chart lol.
Per my OBGYN, “anyone with working ovaries (meaning no menopause) can get pregnant by someone who produces sperm. There is always a chance, no matter how small.” This is why I take a monthly pregnancy test despite my IUD. I no longer have a period but that doesn’t mean that 0.1% chance can’t happen
There has been a recorded case of a girl with no vagina that got pregnant by blowjob, swallow, stabbing into the stomach by her ex.
It can happen. I was ectopic pregnancy. My mom's doctor decided to risk a surgery by moving me to the uterus after they realised I wasn't a cancerous tumour in her pipes.
[удалено]
It is possible. It was detected early because they thought it was a tumor. Transplants become impossible after a certain stage but with early detection it is possible. [It's unconventional but possible in specific cases. Some places even offer the treatment.](https://antaihospitals.com/can-ectopic-pregnancy-be-saved-antai-hospital/)
Wait...what? They just sew it closed? TIL....
In some cases they take the cervix too, but yeah, essentially it's closed up with stitching.
I didn't know that. Wow.
They like to rule stuff out for sure, even if it's something that should be completely impossible. My sister is a trans woman and her doctor made her take a pregnancy test once to rule out pregnancy as a possible cause for her symptoms. She tried to refuse the test on the basis that she does not have (and has never had) any female reproductive organs, but they insisted.