This first thing I thought when I woke up from surgery was I am so hungry and I need ramen right now! but the second thing I thought was Oh my god, I'm safe.
I was safe.
I thought about having kids someday, but the thought was always divorced from the concept of having to grow them in my body. Whenever I thought about it, I would either start screaming or my mind would shut down. My worst nightmares featured discovering I was pregnant, and realizing I would have to keep it, and go through childbirth. I was terrified.
I got the surgery, and realized I was safe, and I never had those nightmares ever again. It was like finding out I was bulletproof.
Later, I looked at the broken condom, and I didn't see my life flash before my eyes. I didn't see my hopes and dreams turn to ash as I pivoted all my energy into a child I didn't want. I didn't see a possibility of starvation or homelessness because my already modest income went to a child I couldn't afford. I didn't see my disabled body becoming further disabled, or killed, by a pregnancy that I didn't want.
Read more between the pages commentary: https://www.patreon.com/posts/68216364 (free post, no paywall)
ok this is great, but the way this is worded is really really misinformed. REMOVING YOUR UTERUS DOES NOT AFFECT HORMONES. this is a super common misconception, but incorrect to the point of being dangerous if people don't actually understand how their body works. the uterus is the baby sack (which has nothing to do with hormone production), and the ovaries are what dictate your hormonal state. you can remove the uterus without removing the ovaries, which is extremely common and was the type of hysterectomy that i got.
i got mine done for several reasons, but obtained it through trans care because gender was one of them. i was not on any gender-affirming hormones, so had zero hormone changes after! hystos are also done laparoscopically, in a nearly identical process to a bilateral salp. however, you don't get periods! i think people don't realize that thats an option, including presumably OP because they mentioned that specifically. i havent thought about my period in years, it fucking rules.
many people, including doctors, will specifically not mention that this is an option. the cultural association with the uterus as a sign of a woman's fertility or some bullshit can trigger a weird response in relation to hystos, often people immediately yelling about how dangerous it is (not moreso than any other major surgery). many horror stories are from people who had them after traumatic births, or who got them prior to the current method; they used to be done similar to a c-section, which required long recovery periods.
if you want to look into a bilateral salp like OP then of course feel free, it can be a good option for some people! but i think it would benefit so many people to realize that periods aren't a curse to bear their whole lives if they don't want it. i have several friends who have gotten them, and recovery was crazy easy; i was walking that day, stopped taking tylenol almost immediately, and went back to kickboxing a week later. it was absolutely the best thing i've ever done, and i wish everyone luck with whatever choices they make <3
#I've only done a brief trawl of .gov medical resources but all this seems to check out #(I'm trying to be better about verifying these sorts of things before reblogging them
Y'all, I did so much research when I first made this comic, and I continue to do research. Granted, things are changing very fast right now, but so far, it still holds up. Good on you for fact checking, though!
Also, per the other comment above, a "total/ radical hysterectomy" typically removes the ovaries as well, which will affect your hormone production. Partial hysterotomy will typically leave the ovaries intact, yes. A lot of how I wrote the comic was trying to meet people where they were, knowledge-wise, and for so many people, they've been led to believe that the only surgical option is a radical and total hysterectomy, and that would be accompanied by a lifetime of HRT, which is daunting, and often requires more medical "necessity" for approval. I only had 5 pages in which to pack a lot of information, so some explanations got truncated.
Other options for getting rid of periods, which I talk about in my commentary link, are the various forms of endometrial/uterine ablations, in which the uterus is cauterized, which prevents the uterine lining from being able to form, thus preventing periods, but pregnancy is still possible, and very dangerous when it does happen. I would suggest pairing these two procedures if you want to eliminate pregnancy and periods without a hysterectomy.
Something else I'd like to bring up, while we're here, is that trans people have so much knowledge about how to squeeze healthcare out of people determined to tell us we don't need it. Regardless of our fertility status, we are invaluable to the cause of bodily autonomy, and fighting for trans rights always improves healthcare for cis people. TERFS allied themselves with Evangelicals to take us down, and they only made the Evangelicals more powerful, and I do believe they are a significant factor in why Roe was struck down, amidst all this "trans panic."
