I have severe health anxiety especially about cancers. I have concerns about uterine and ovarian cancer. I feel like a completely hysterectomy would take care of all my fears. I will still fear breast cancer, but at least some of my fears would be gone. Do you think this is too extreme? What would you do?
I understand what your concern is,the total hysterectomy would assure that you would not get cervical or uterine cancer but that’s not 100% true for ovarian. even if they are removed.ovarian cancer is not so common that you have to always worry about it.
I think that if you went ahead with this procedure, there would always be some other area you would worry about getting cancer in or some other disease you would worry about.
we have so many other organs and we can’t remove them all.
your best bet would be to get some counseling about this and learn how to manage the anxiety about your health.over thinking will make your life miserable.i’ve been there and still do sometimes. It’s the worst feeling. I’m getting a little better at it but it’s difficult.
counseling has helped me though just face the fact that some things we have no control over. All we can do is take care of ourselves the best we can and enjoy our lives. Constant fear and worry take days and years away from you that you will never get back. I hope you are able to get some peace of mind about this. 
Hi Jan,
What type of counseling has helped you? I hear a lot about CBT therapy being a huge help with anxiety/health anxiety. I suffer from health anxiety over a health scare 4 years ago and haven’t been the same since. I’m always worried about something, and like you mentioned, it takes so much time away from living!
@KB42O - I have the same problem and thought the exact same thing you mentioned! My fear (right now) is reproductive diseases (I can’t even type the “C” word, it honestly triggers me so bad). I wish I had some magic words, but as I read @jan34534 's advice, I find myself nodding along so now I’m going to read it a few more times so it sinks into my brain as well 
-Liz
I have had CBT which was helpful. Right now I am doing virtual counseling with a therapist once a week. He helped me to get a better perspective on worry and fear .
for example one of the things we have to remember is that …
emotional reasoning such as fear and anxiety is not based on reality or fact. It is based on emotion which is not reliable at all. it is confused with facts.
evidence-based reasoning is based on verifiable evidence or facts.
for example …
a person may be afraid they might have a terrible disease because they have some symptoms. They say they convinced themselves that they have the disease. They have read symptoms on Google and that convinced them even more. that’s an example of emotional reasoning. based on fear .
ON The other hand, evidence-based reasoning would be looking at the facts such as what are the scientific odds of getting this disease, according to a persons age and sex.
Knowing logically that the symptoms they are experiencing can occur in many non-life-threatening conditions. There is a much greater chance of that occurring and then of anything serious.
SO we have to be aware when we are using emotional reasoning.
sometimes it takes another person to open our eyes to our way of thinking and that’s why I do suggest that people get counseling when they have any type of anxiety.
A book I really thought was great is called finding quiet. it’s a man’s journey with anxiety and how he overcame it.seriously, with the way we think, it will determine how we spend the rest of our lives. There’s a saying… " where the mind goes, the man follows“. there’s a lot of talks about health anxiety on YouTube also.
I know I tend to write a lot but that’s because I’ve been through it all when it comes to anxiety . I just cited I’m not going to throw my life away to worry and fear anymore. Life is way too short. Take care!
@jan34534 Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, and for continuing to provide such great advice. I had a therapist a while back, but she retired and since I’ve been struggling to find one that specializes in CBT. I have often thought about the virtual therapy route and think I’ll look into that again. I am not sure if you’re in the US, but I know there are quite a few ads I’ll see for online counseling - do you do any of those? I thought about looking into them, but not sure which is good (clearly, I need to do more research on my part)
I am going to look into the book you mentioned, I love to read but struggle with the typical self-help books, I need one with a story and it sounds like Finding Quiet will be a great one for me. Oddly enough, I was scrolling through Instagram this morning and someone had posted that quote you mentioned - very interesting and timely!
Thank you again, I truly appreciate your time and insight!
Take Care, and have a great week -
Liz