Total hysterectomy at 60
11 June, 2017
Question:I am scheduled to under go a TAH–BSO (total abdominal hysterectomy with ovary removal) on Sunday. I am 60 years old and not currently a niddah. Relations are not allowed medically for two months, but I would still like to know if I will be a niddah or will be allowed to touch my husband. Bathing is also forbidden medically for two months, so if I do become niddah, I would not be able to go to the mikvah until two months post–op.
Answer:The spotting after a hysterectomy is generally from the vaginal wall. The blood is not hormonal blood from the uterus (dam niddah) but the result of trauma (dam makkah) and, as such, does not render a woman niddah. As long as a woman is not in niddah going into the procedure, the procedure should not render her niddah.
Since a total hysterectomy presents the last time a woman will have uterine bleeding, we generally recommend immersing a week following the procedure, without bedikot or a bracha. But in your case, where you have had no bleeding for years, no immersion is needed.
Refuah sheleimah!
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