On July 31st, 2019 at 7:30 AM, I went into the operating room. I was having a procedure that is done so often, but my situation was different...I am a trans man and I had a hysterectomy.

In 2014 I had my top surgery for my transition. After that, I didn’t know if I wanted a hysterectomy or not. In the past year or so I had decided that a hysterectomy was something I wanted to do. So July 1st, 2019 I had a consultation for my hysto. A few days later, I got a call from the surgery schedulers and we set my date for July 31st, 2019. I did not know the time of my surgery until July 30th. I was scheduled to be there for 6 AM and had a surgery time of 7:30 AM. I was so happy it was the first procedure of the day because I had been filled with anxiety over the anesthesia for the weeks leading up to the surgery.

I had 2 surgeons work on me, an anesthesiologist with 1 student and 1 resident helping, as well as a nurse and I think a student nurse as well.

The procedure I had done was a total laparoscopic hysterectomy with bilateral oophorectomy and salpingectomy. In non medical terms, I had my cervix, uterus (or as I like to call it, duderus), ovaries, and Fallopian tubes removed.

The procedure went really well. I have 3 incisions, one on my left, one on my right, and one in my belly button. I did have a small complication but I’d rather not discuss it as it’s just a bit too personal. However, it was extremely minor and I only have a few extra stitches because of it.

I was brought to the recovery room after my procedure and the first thing I remember saying is “I NEED TO POOP I HAVE TO POOP RIGHT NOW!!!” The second thing I said was “where’s my mom, I want my mom”. I also remember looking up multiple times saying “where am I” before passing out again. I don’t remember rolling all around the bed but apparently I was.

Once they had me a bit more stable, they brought me to my inpatient room. I was there for one night. I was losing a good amount of blood, and while it wasn’t at a concerning level, the nurses checked the amount of blood regularly. They did some blood work and my red blood cell count was slightly low but nothing significant.

All of the nurses and doctors were so nice and respectful. One nurse even complimented my beard.

I had a catheter in for roughly 12 hours after surgery as well as “packing” which I won’t get in to but I will say when they removed it, it was extremely painful. Luckily, the catheter was painless.

I did almost get catheterized again because I was having a hard time peeing but eventually I was able to pee without issue.

I was discharged on August 1st around 3:00 PM. I think I would have been able to leave earlier but it took me until about 2:00 PM that day to fart and I couldn’t leave until I farted.

I’m recovering well and am 11 days post op. I was able to make it all of today without taking any medication for pain (I stopped the narcotics after 3 days but until today I was taking ibuprofen and Tylenol).