Discomfort experienced by women submitted to hysterectomy

Abstract

Background: The confrontation, by the woman/couple, of the need to undergo through an hysterectomy is not always easy.. Different problems experienced may push towards this decision, even though doubts and concerns about what you may experience after hysterectomy are still present. Objective: to know the discomfort experienced by women who undergo hysterectomy. Methodology: Exploratory and descriptive qualitative study. Ten women who underwent hysterectomy belonging to a Primary Health Care Unit in the Northern Region of Portugal participated. A semi-structured interview in the last quarter of 2018, was used, followed by the verbatim transcription of the interviews and qualitative data analysis, as proposed by Bardin, with the help of QSR NVivo in version 12, qualitative research software. The Ethics Committee authorized the study to be carried out and all ethical procedures required for a study of this nature were complied with. The data presented are part of a larger study in the context of the experiences of women undergoing hysterectomy. Results: Three emerging categories are presented: “Problems presented by women before the hysterectomy” consisting of nine subcategories, with haemorrhages, tumours, and the risk of cancer being the most mentioned; “Discomfort manifested by women after hysterectomy” consisting of six subcategories, of which vaginal dryness, pain during intercourse and altered body image stand out; and the category “Nurses attitudes valued by the women” , with four subcategories, including helping to overcome and treating them well. Conclusions: if on the one hand hysterectomy solves gynaecological problems presented by women, increasing their well-being and quality of life, on the other hand it also confronts them with the appearance of new discomforts, for which they did not always feel prepared.