Coffee and a Hysterectomy

This one’s for the ladies.  Can we talk about the elephant in the room for a minute?  Menopause.  How is it that in 2025, we still don’t have concrete answers about what’s happening to our bodies? Most days, I’m just sick and tired of being sick and tired—how about you?  A little over a year ago, I had a full hysterectomy. Oh—and a bonus appendectomy. Yep, apparently surgery can be buy-one-get-one-free.

Here’s where I went wrong:  When they say “6 weeks to recover,” believe them.  I took one full week off from work. One. I told my team: no calls except from two key people. Everyone else? Radio silence.  Week two? I went back part-time, exhausted and barely functional. After that, it was back to the grind like nothing had happened. Not smart.  I had the sick time. But I believed the lie that “work needs me.”

You know what I’ve learned since then?  If I hadn’t shown up for six full weeks… the world would’ve kept spinning.  People would’ve figured it out.

And I would’ve healed better.  How many of you needed to hear that?  We have to take the time to heal. Or we’ll pay for it later.

Now let’s go back for a second.  So why is it that we still do not have clear answers?  Keep your ovaries? You risk one kind of cancer.  Remove them? You risk another.  One doctor says I’ll need hormone replacement therapy for life.  Another says I’ll never be able to take enough to make a difference.  I read online about hormone pellets under the skin—amazing reviews, but also conflicting data. I’m left wondering… where’s the solid, consistent guidance?

Here’s the only truth I know:  Women are suffering.  Some with hot flashes.  Some with crushing anxiety.  Some with zero symptoms at all.  We need to talk about this more.  We need to advocate for real answers.  And like it or not, we often have to do the research ourselves.