I asked Lorraine to tell me what it was she really wanted in her life. She gestured dramatically and declared that she just wanted her life ’sorted and in order’. It seemed to her, ‘things’ had been out of order and in chaos for too many of her 45 years. I gently drew out from Lorraine the detail of what was not sorted and was out of order in her life. The final straw had been recent difficulties in her relationship with her long term partner. Once she had voiced her concerns she was noticeably more relaxed and at ease. Also she was more than a little surprised at how, when she had named and looked in detail at all the areas where things were not sorted and out of order, she could easily put together some simple action steps to take control of her surroundings, her paperwork and her feelings about her relationship. This was a big step for Lorraine who had been a hoarder of material things, believing that she could lose everything at any moment. The realization came to Lorraine that instead of making her feel more secure, these possessions no longer had any use in her life and added to her feelings of chaos. She was taken aback at how she concluded that it would be OK to let go of these material things and live a life less encumbered, and in her words, “weighed down”.

To give Lorraine confidence to deal with any possible ‘outbreak’ of disorder in the future, we did a simple exercise. She was a keen student and always kept on top of her studying, whatever else was going on. I asked her to remember a time she felt that she had things totally in order. I simply asked her to visualize that wonderful ’sorted’ state of her coursework, to feel all the confident and energizing feelings of being in control when she remembered that tidy file. As she did this I asked her to simply press on a particular spot on her left little finger. Anytime that she felt that things might be going out of ‘order’ she could just press that spot on her left little finger and it would bring back all the feelings of order and it would run the ‘programme’ in her mind of taking control and getting order back into her life.

She left our session with an air of excitement at getting down to tackling what needed to be done.

She telephoned me a week later to say that her skin was much improved; she had cleared her house from top to bottom,had taken bags and bags of rubbish to the tip and was planning a mini break with her partner.

NLP Coach and Personal Development Trainer, Beryl Whiting delivers professionally developed management training programmes to individuals and blue-chip organisations. You can contact Beryl via her website http://www.berylwhiting.com. Go now and complete the free Stress Assessment.

Hysterectomy surgery has advantages and disadvantages. Often the surgery is performed to alleviate discomfort, pain or abnormalities that the woman is experiencing. If you had heavy bleeding, pressure and pain before your hysterectomy, sex after hysterectomy should improve. One change that many women experience during sex after a hysterectomy is that they no longer experience uterine contractions during orgasm. This is not surprising, however, since the uterus has been removed.

According to authors Dr. Scott Goodwin, Dr. Michael Broder and studies by the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology — if your sex life was good before hysterectomy, sex after a hysterectomy will likely remain the same or even improve after your surgery. In general, hysterectomy should have no adverse effects on your sexuality, provided you are informed of the side effects of hysterectomy and hormone imbalance.

Physically, if your hysterectomy procedure requires the vagina be made shorter, you may experience pain during sex after hysterectomy. To reduce pain due to this reason, consider being on top during sex to control the level of penetration. Deep penetration may also temporarily cause discomfort in the early months after hysterectomy surgery. This can be overcome by altering the sexual positions or altering the angle of penetration. Allow adequate time for the stitches in the vagina to heal, usually about six weeks. Initially, the vagina may seem somewhat shortened, but sex after hysterectomy can gradually stretch the vaginal tissue.

According to family physician and author Dr. John R. Lee, following hysterectomy, you will experience a deficiency of the critical hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone which can affect sex after hysterectomy. Progesterone levels fall dramatically in one to two months since ovulation is required to produce progesterone. Progesterone deficiency is related to numerous side effects including increased risk of developing certain kinds of cancer such as endometrial cancer.

Testosterone deficiency in women causes low sex drive, low energy levels, thyroid deficiency and depression. Normal testosterone production requires sufficient progesterone levels in a woman’s body, according to Dr. Lee. And estrogen levels will decrease in one or two years, and estrogen deficiency can result in vaginal dryness, hot flashes and night sweats.

How can you know more about hysterectomy, hormone imbalance and side effects of hysterectomy? There is an online hormone health test provided by a leading women’s health clinic that you can take. The hormone health test takes just a few minutes and is free. Learn as much as you can about hormone imbalance, hysterectomy recovery and physician-recommended natural hormone replacement therapy.

Copyright 2005 InfoSearch Publishing

Read more about hysterectomy and take the hormone health test provided by the womens health clinic online. Olinda Rola is President of InfoSearch Publishing and webmaster of http://www.safemenopausesolutions.com – a website of natural health articles and information for women.