Back in 2019 I noted, in this piece, that I am not much good at medical chat. My memory is fine when it comes to things like biographical detail and conversation recall but medical information rarely stays in my mind for long.

It might be a good thing. As that earlier piece noted:

“Maybe it’s a strength rather than a weakness. I am not going to take an unhealthy interest in someone else’s troubles. If you’re not well, you should see a doctor. No point talking to me about it.”

Although this piece is dated 27 February 2024, I am finalizing it several weeks later. This is something I do often, as noted in this piece about Christmas 2022.

For much of the last three months my wife has been affected by numerous health issues, the most significant of which was diagnosed as atypical complex endometrial hyperplasia. She needed an operation which was scheduled for Friday 12 January. It was postponed on the day for issues related to Covid. I will go into a little detail here, to record how things worked at the start of 2024.

Although our children and I went through the whole of 2023 without contracting the virus, my wife caught it in early December, and was poorly for a few days. The operation was scheduled for five weeks after her last positive Covid test. The guidance regarding operations and Covid at that time were as follows:

• no operations within two weeks of a positive test;
• from two to seven weeks after a positive test any operations are at the discretion of the surgical team;
• seven or more weeks after a positive test: operations continue as scheduled.

In my wife’s case the surgeon advised that the operation should go ahead. The anaesthetist advised that it should be postponed, so it was, until Friday 9 February.

Typing these words in mid-April I can report that the operation went as planned and that my wife’s recovery has been slow and steady.

I will not try to summarize what atypical endometrial hyperplasia (AEH) is, and will probably be unable commit the phrase to memory. As noted in this piece from 2017, this Blog acts as my “exobrain”, “a collection of things that no longer play on my mind in the way that they used to”. By creating this piece I will know where to look up the word “hyperplasia” in future. AEH is described on Medicalnewstoday.com as follows:

“Atypical endometrial hyperplasia (AEH) occurs when the lining of the uterus is too thick and contains abnormal cells. It can cause vaginal bleeding and may progress to cause further symptoms …

“The rare condition affects around 17 out of 100,000 people with uteruses per year. It is a precancerous condition, which means that it is not cancer but can lead to cancer of the uterus.”

Should I offer you an alternative word for the expression “people with uteruses” used in the quote above? I can think of at least one suitable word, which covers both “people with uteruses” and people who used to have a uterus but no longer do. The latter category accurately describes my wife, and quite a few other women we already knew of who have had hysterectomies over the years. There’s even a family catchphrase related to it. I am not going to share it here, which will be a relief to my wife. Recently we have learnt about several other women who have had this operation in recent years. All of them had full recoveries. No adverse outcomes in the stories we have heard from friends and family.

At the end of March my wife had confirmation that no follow-up treatment would be required. There were precancerous cells which were all removed, nothing worse than that. As the quote above says, AEH “is not cancer but can lead to cancer of the uterus”. In my wife’s case it looks like they have caught it in time.

A week ago I was at a funeral for a woman around 30 years older than my wife (there was no detail about her date of birth, or even her year of birth). The deceased was diagnosed with ovarian cancer seven years ago and had survived many years of treatment, until last month. The extent of my wife’s operation, and its successful outcome, means that this is something else that she could literally never be diagnosed with, any more than I could. I am a person who has never had a uterus or ovaries. Can you think of a straightforward word to describe such a person?

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