My wife told me today that she’s angry.
“Angry at what?”
Just world-hating, unfocused, anger. Starts the moment she wakes up. She’s feeling she has to keep the throttle on, so to speak, to keep from going balistic about the smallest things.
She recently had a hystrerectomy (3 months ago) and her coworker thinks it might be hormonal.
I’m not looking for a specific diagnosis for her, just a general question as to whether undirected anger could even be biological in origin?
When she had her hysterectomy, did her doctors talk with her about the potential side effects of the surgery? Cuz they should have.
Yes, good God, man, of course rage can be hormonal. Ever heard of PMS? Ever seen people joke about staying on a pregnant lady’s good side?
Absolutely. Many menopausal women (which your wife now technically is) experience anger and rage as their relative hormone levels change. (See number 3 here.) It wouldn’t surprise me if this was actually worse for a younger woman who has had a hysterectomy, since her testosterone levels are likely unaffected and higher than an older woman’s, but now not “balanced out” by her female hormones. Testosterone in excess - or relative excess - can lead to feelings of anger and rage.
It could also be depression. I know it doesn’t seem like it matches the most well known symptoms, but for some people, clinical depression manifests in rage, not sadness. On a similar note, I’ve noticed that when people quit smoking, some of them are bitchy, and some of them (including me) are weepy. Emotional manifestations of biological imbalances can be varied. It’s not at all unusual for people to develop depression after surgery, especially if that surgery was unexpected and even moreso when that surgery affects one’s sexuality, body image and identity, as a hysterectomy certainly can.
Whatever it is, it’s worth getting checked out by a physician.
Yeah - she’s gonna schedule the Dr. visit.
The hysterectomy wasn’t complete, by the way. The left the ovaries but took the uterus & cervix. (There’s a good ten-dollar word for it but I don’t feel like googling it up.) We were told this should result in very little hormonal change.
The usual term for it is only $5, and that’s “complete” or “total hysterectomy”. A hysterectomy where they also remove some of the vagina is called a “radical hysterectomy”. One where they take only part of the uterus and leave the cervix and vagina intact is the $10 word: “supracervical” (literally - above the cervix) hysterectomy - also known as a “partial” or “subtotal” hysterectomy.
You’re right in that a total hysterectomy shouldn’t affect the hormones nearly as much as a radical one, but it will still have some effect. But from a nursing standpoint, my money’s on “Body Image Disturbance” or “Personal Identity Disturbance” due to surgery. For what it’s worth coming from a nursing student who hasn’t done an assessment on this particular individual (read: very little).
I’d suggest, while talking to the doctor, find out if there are any support groups in your area for women who have gone through this. It’s hard to express how devastating something like this can be, even for someone who seems okay with it and has a good support system in place. Even if she didn’t intend to have (more?) children, there’s a lot of personal identity tied up in fertility and menstruation as symbols of womanhood and vitality, and there’s bound to be a period where she’s going to face some shadows from this change.
My co-leader of our local anxiety support group got her anxiety disorder after surgery. Three months sounds just about right for your wife to be having some blowback from a serious, life-changing surgery. I’d agree with seeing the doctor, but having a chat with a psychotherapist or the support group as WhyNot suggest just to sort a few things out might not be a bad idea, either.
Originally posted by Beltrix:
“Angry at what?”
From the movie “The Wild One:”
Mildred: What’re you rebelling against, Johnny?
Johnny: Whaddya got?
Oh God yes
It seems silly in retrospect, but I would have moments when I was heading to work in the morning, sitting next to some stranger on the train, and I would start to have thoughts toward this stranger like
"how dare you sit down next to me, carrying your purse, with your “nice pants” and your “face”, and now you are reading your stupid “book” I wish you would go away and die.
really
This part, we XYs ought to be able to relate to.
Indeed. It’s always vaguely amused me that during PMS, when we’re such “moody bitches”, we’re the closest hormonally we ever are to men. Honestly, if I felt like that all month long, I might start wars, too! 
for the most part the guys who aren’t beating others over the head with a club have learned to handle the hormones, maybe resorting to coping mechanisms like watching sports if needed. it is when females who haven’t developed a mechanism to deal with it gets a wallop of hormones that have coping problems.
I had to take Plan B once, and it did a number on my emotions. I don’t recall being sad, but I do remember that I had to leave my dad’s house because I started screaming at him and almost punched him. We’d had a little argument and my temper went from 0 to 100 in no time flat. Everyone was shocked, including me. But once I thought about the Plan B, and explained myself, it was all good.
I remember being a teenager and walking around angry and moody for no good reason. I’d want to fight people and smash things. I remember thinking that I had to either fuck something or fuck something up. The funny thing was, I knew that it was just my brain chemistry being out of whack. Yet I was powerless to do anything about it.
One of the guys in my unit started taking testosterone pills for weight lifting purposes and it totally changed him. He would snap at just about everything. I told him that it was the pills and he didn’t believe me. It took some work to convince him to stop taking them, but when he did, it was like having our old friend back.
How’d that go?! “Sorry, Dad. I had unprotected sex last night.” Yikes.
Yeah, it’s humiliating that hormones have us by the short hairs.
Here’s me before menopause: “Hi, honey! (kissee, kissee). Giggle.”
Here’s me during menopause: “What’re you lookin’ at, butthead!?!”
I’m confused. Aren’t most female hormones made by the ovaries? I didn’t think the uterus made any, so I’m not understanding how this type of hysterectomy would result in hormone-induced anything. Unless…does the uterus, as a location, keep the hormones, um, in line, so they don’t wander through the body and wreak havoc?
Some doctors think the uterus makes hormones (Is the Uterus Necessary After Childbearing is Completed?) and some don’t (http://forums.obgyn.net/womens-health/WHF.9908/0112.html). It’s just another of the mysteries of the human body we’re still trying to sort out.
The uterus does affect blood flow to the ovaries however, and that itself can affect the function of the ovaries, and the hormones that they make.
Oh my God, yes. There was a time when my wife was going through fertility treatments, which involved the injection of many drugs and hormones.
The effects were frightening. My life was hell for a couple of years there.
Heh, I explained it to my mom (condom broke when I was off the Pill due to shitty meds-by-mail mixup) and she explained to my dad “female issues” and that was that. I was in my late 20’s at the time, so it wasn’t that traumatic 
Hormones are SCARY. I recently went through several months of hell during hormonal treatments for an imbalance.
I very nearly ended up divorced. They kept changing my pills around trying to get it right. One kind left me alternating between crying jags and uncontrollable rage.
A lot of doctors discount women’s complaints when they say they have psychological symptoms from hormone fluctuations, but a good doctor will listen and help find the right combination to get you regulated without feeling crazy.
If your wife’s doctor isn’t listening she should shop around for a new one, STAT.
Doctor’s appt is Wednesday. I’ll post if there’s any definitive news.