Scars After A Hysterectomy 

TLDR: These are pictures of my scars after a hysterectomy over the years. I have had a laparotomy too, to remove 2 ovaries so you can see keyhole scars and laparotomy open stomach surgery scars.

Hi, I’m Rachel. 3 and a half years ago I had a full hysterectomy via keyhole surgery. 

Five months before this I had a laparotomy to remove borderline ovarian cancer (the reason I had my hysterectomy ) so although I didn’t have my hysterectomy via laparotomy I have spent time recovering from a laparotomy and the scars will be will be similar if you are having your surgery via open stomach.

The two most common ways of having a hysterectomy are key hole (laparoscopic) and open stomach (laparotomy) Key hole is much less invasive and so your scarring will be less. Laparotomy requires your stomach to be cut open, therefore you will have a bigger scar. 

I will break down with images my scars after a hysterectomy via key hole and my scars after my laparotomy, by month and years. 

I will be sharing mainly pictures of my stomach after my keyhole hysterectomy and laparotomy to remove 1.5 ovaries. 

WARNING: the laparotomy ones are a little disturbing to look at, I will start with scars after keyhole hysterectomy first, so if you don’t want to look at my laparotomy scars you don’t need to. 

Scars After A Hysterectomy Key Hole Surgery 

If you’re worried about scars after a hysterectomy hopefully these pictures put your mind at ease. 

I have circled my scars after hysterectomy in pink, they are so minimal they are hard to spot. I had 3 incisions and one is definitely more prominent than the other two, so you can’t even see two of them in most pictures. 

Note that sometimes the camera is on selfie mode and sometimes it isn’t, hence why it looks like they are on different sides. 

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 4 hours After Surgery

I have circled them in green here as this is what I sent my friends on whatsapp right after my hysterectomy surgery to show them! I was shocked by how minimal they were.

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 1 Month

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 2 Months

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 3 Months

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 7 Months

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 9 Months

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 18 Months

Scars After Keyhole Hysterectomy 3 Years

Scars After Laparotomy Surgery 

Remember, I had my full hysterectomy via key hole but I have also had a laparotomy and if you are having yours this way, it will be pretty similar to this. I had one ovary removed during this surgery and half of the other, so it was almost a hysterectomy! 

Scars After Laparotomy  4 hours 

When I looked at this for the first time I was in utter shock. I wasn’t expecting this at all, I had 32 staples in total and was not expecting what I saw. I still look back at the picture of my stomach after a laparotomy and feel shocked! 

Scars After Laparotomy  1 Day

Scars After Laparotomy  2 weeks

I had all of my staples out after around 2 weeks, I had it done in 2 stages as I had 32! 

Scars After Laparotomy 2 months

Scars After Laparotomy 3 months

I am on holiday here and clearly was brave enough to wear a bikini! It’s high waisted so it would have been covered but that shows how quickly the scars after laparotomy healed. 

Scars After Laparotomy 5 months

You can see a little of the scar here above my knicker line, so it gives you an indication of how high a scar after a laparotomy comes. 

In this picture I have just had my keyhole surgery, which is why I took this picture but you can clearly see the scar after laparotomy. It faded so quickly, I remember how silky smooth it felt at this point too!

Scars After Laparotomy 6 months

I remember putting lots of coconut oil on my scar. I also used body lotions, nothing in particular and sometimes CBD creams as I was getting samples for my business at the time. Just keep moisturising it and massaging it. 

I preferred coconut oil, as it felt really natural to be putting there. 

Scars After Laparotomy 7 months

Scars After Laparotomy 8 months

As if I hadn’t had enough surgery this year, 8 months after my laparotomy I had a belly button hernia removed, so you can clearly see my laparotomy scar in this picture. 

One thing you will notice about this picture of my stomach after a laparotomy/hysterectomy is the staple marks. The tiny marks actually have not really faded, they aren’t noticeable but they don’t seem to really go. 

Chat to your doctors about this as I do now know that you can have surgical glue – opt for this if you can! When I am in the sun they seem to show up more. 

Scars After Laparotomy 9 months

This was a month after having my belly button hernia removed so shows my scarring 9 months after laparotomy. 

This is a good picture to show how the laparotomy scar comes above the trousers and what you can see.

Scars After Laparotomy One Year

I lost a lot of weight around this point after my hysterectomy, I don’t know if my body or mind was adjusting but I definitely lost weight. I wrote lots more about weight loss after a hysterectomy here, which you can read. You can also read my personal story of hysterectomy and how it affected me here.

You can see my laparotomy scar one year after the surgery. 

Scars After Laparotomy 18 months

Scars After Laparotomy 2 years

The scar is so minimal at this point, crazy how much it has gone down. 

When I first had the surgery I had a slight dip, as you will see from the pictures of my stomach after surgery. As you can see here my stomach two years after laparotomy is flat and that dip has gone. On the right is the picture after I had the laparotomy compared with on the left 2 years later. 

Scars After Laparotomy 3 years

You can see in this picture that the worst scar is actually from my keyhole surgery! The laparotomy scar is barely visible and my stomach is pretty flat. 

If you’re worried about scars after a hysterectomy or laparotomy hopefully these pictures put your mind at ease. As you can see mine are pretty minimal and I am still confident with my stomach out. 

Although they might look shocking at first, try not to worry. Follow your doctors advice in terms of care plan and check if you can use anything to help the scar heal, like I did. 

Any questions I am always happy to answer

[email protected]

Rachel xx