Expert View Recovery After Hysterectomy: What You Need to Know

An ob-gyn shares tips to speed Hysterectomy recovery in the hospital and at home.

Dr. Shana Miles

Hysterectomy is one of the most common surgeries in the United States, with hundreds of thousands done each year. Removing the uterus can be part of the recommended treatment for uterine fibroids, abnormal uterine bleeding, endometriosis, gynecologic cancers, and other health conditions.

I’m a minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon, which means I specialize in doing big surgeries like hysterectomy through tiny incisions. This is a modern and safe technique that makes healing faster. But it also makes it easy to underestimate how long it takes to truly recover.

If you are considering or planning for a hysterectomy, here is what I want you to know—plus, what you can do to speed your recovery at home.

Not Your Grandmother’s Hysterectomy

Your knowledge of hysterectomy may be based on your mother’s or grandmother’s experience. Historically, doctors did the surgery through a large vertical or horizontal incision, opening your whole abdomen.

But over the last few decades, hysterectomies have evolved into a much less invasive and more manageable outpatient surgery. While some hysterectomies are still done with open surgery, today’s surgeries are more likely to be done through the vagina or with tiny incisions in the abdomen. If we make any incisions, they are usually 1 centimeter (half an inch) or less. You’ll start feeling better much sooner than with open surgery. Indeed, most of my patients are surprised to learn they can go home the same day.

So it’s easy to forget you’ve been through major surgery. You may have tiny incisions on the outside, but a huge change has happened on the inside. Removing the uterus puts stress on the entire body. You need to give yourself time to heal and not jump back into your normal routine too quickly.