Three lists: get help now, call your doctor today, and keep an eye on it. Select what applies and you get a phone script: the words to say when you call, in the order a nurse needs to hear them, built from what you told the tool.
The paperwork you came home with says to call if you have unusual symptoms. It does not say what unusual means, or where ordinary healing ends and something to act on begins. At midnight three days after surgery, those two things can feel exactly the same.
The three lists below name the line. They come from patient guidance published by institutions including the NHS, RCOG, ACOG, and MedlinePlus, and they follow one rule: where sources disagreed on a safety threshold, the more protective one wins. Where those same sources agree a symptom is part of normal healing, that's stated too — because the answer to most 3am worries is that this is probably fine, and here is the point where it stops being fine.
Select what applies and you get the words to say on the phone, so you aren't hunting for them while you're frightened.
Should I call about this?
Three lists: get help now, call your doctor today, and keep an eye on it. Tick what's happening and you get the words to say on the phone, so you aren't hunting for them while you're frightened.
Your answers never leave this page. Nothing is stored, nothing is sent.
Most of what happens in the first weeks after a hysterectomy is ordinary healing. Here's where the lines are.
Urgent. Get help now if:
Go to the emergency department, or call your local emergency number. Don't wait to see whether it settles, and don't wait for an appointment.
That's the emergency list. Go now. The rest of this can wait.
Call your doctor today if:
Your surgeon's office, or your family doctor. If it's the middle of the night, your discharge sheet has the number to use.
Keep an eye on it:
These come with healing for a lot of women, and the guidance puts no call-today threshold on any of them. Mention them at your next appointment. Each one has a point where it stops being ordinary.
Nothing on the lists matches that word. That doesn't mean it's nothing.
Frightened by something that isn't on any of these lists? Call anyway. Being worried is reason enough.
Not asking whether to call, just whether this is normal for week four? Start with the recovery timeline.
Your surgeon's instructions outrank everything on this page. If they told you something different, they win.
Put it into words
Two optional answers. They go at the top of the script so you can read them straight out.
Sources and assumptions
This sorts what to do. It cannot tell you what is wrong, and it makes no attempt to. Every item on the three lists is an observation you can make yourself, never a diagnosis, and there is no score.
Where the lists come from. The get-help-now and call-today items are drawn from the published patient guidance below. Where two credible sources set a threshold differently, the more protective one is the one used here, which is the opposite of how this site handles recovery milestones: clearances get shown as the full range, safety thresholds get shown at their most cautious.
Two items are pinned to a single source, and that is stated rather than smoothed over. The soaks-a-pad-in-an-hour bleeding figure comes from MyHealth Alberta (Healthwise), the one source checked that puts a number on heavy bleeding; UK guidance describes it without a figure. And the fever item deliberately carries no number, because NHS, RCOG, ACOG and Healthwise all name "a fever" with no threshold attached, and MedlinePlus is the only source checked that gives one. Your own discharge instructions beat all of them on that question.
The vaginal cuff item follows the Society for Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology, whose practice summary (revised November 2025) states that cuff dehiscence with evisceration is a surgical emergency requiring immediate repair. It applies where the cervix was removed. Intercourse is a recognized precipitant, and no reliable figure exists for how often it is the trigger, so none is given.
The keep-an-eye-on list is built two ways: by turning the sourced call-today thresholds around, so each item states the point where it crosses over, and from two normality statements in the guidance (tiredness lasting two to four weeks and outlasting the pain; sadness and relief both common after this surgery). Belly swelling is the exception. No source checked gives a timeline for how long post-hysterectomy swelling takes to settle, so no timeline appears here.
Contact routes vary by country, so this page names the action rather than a number: emergency department, your surgeon's office, your family doctor, the number on your discharge sheet. UK guidance also names NHS 111 as a route. In Canada, provincial nurse lines are commonly reached at 811, and Alberta's is the one checked here.
Your answers are processed entirely in your browser and vanish when you leave the page. The only copy that exists is the one you print.
Sources (checked August 19, 2026):
- RCOG, Recovering well leaflets: abdominal, laparoscopic, vaginal (June–August 2025)
- NHS, hysterectomy recovery (reviewed October 2022, past its own stated review date; where NHS and RCOG differ, RCOG leads here)
- NHS Inform Scotland, hysterectomy (updated October 2025)
- MedlinePlus, hysterectomy discharge: abdominal, laparoscopic (February 2025)
- ACOG: Hysterectomy FAQ and Recovery after hysterectomy (accessed August 2026)
- MyHealth Alberta (Healthwise), hysterectomy, including "When to Call" (current as of May 2025)
- OWH (womenshealth.gov), hysterectomy (February 2025)
- SASGOG, Management of dehiscence of the vaginal cuff (revised November 2025)
- Nezhat et al. 2018, Obstetrics & Gynecology, vaginal cuff dehiscence and evisceration: a review
This is general information, and it isn't medical advice. No page can examine you or know your case. Your surgeon's instructions outrank everything here. If something feels wrong, that's reason enough to call your doctor.
Sources checked August 19, 2026. Next check August 2027, or sooner if any of that guidance changes.
The three lists
The triage is descending. The first list is the emergency list: go now, without waiting to see whether it settles. The second is the call-today list: get your doctor on the phone before the end of the day. The third is the watch list: things that come with healing for a lot of women, each with the point where it stops being ordinary.
Most symptoms land on the third list, which matters. The guidance reviewed here describes the vast majority of recovery as normal healing that does not need a call. Most night-time worries are probably fine — and that is only useful alongside the point where "probably fine" ends, so each item carries one.
The emergency list
Four items. Sudden shortness of breath, chest pain, or coughing up blood can be signs of a clot in the lung, and the guidance treats all three as emergencies whether or not they feel dramatic. A painful, red, swollen, or hot leg — or new pain in the calf, behind the knee, in the thigh, or the groin — can be a clot in the leg. Both come directly from RCOG's recovering-well leaflets, which were the freshest published clinical guidance at the time the tool was built.
Bright red bleeding that soaks a pad or more in an hour, or large clots. MyHealth Alberta's Healthwise page is the one source checked that puts a number on heavy bleeding; UK guidance names it without a threshold. Both versions are noted inside the tool's sources panel.
The fourth is the one nobody warns you about. If the cervix was removed, the top of the vagina was stitched closed. Sudden severe pelvic pain, a gush of fluid or bleeding, or a feeling of something coming down or out — particularly after sex — can mean that closure has opened. The Society for Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology describes this, called vaginal cuff dehiscence, as a surgical emergency requiring immediate repair. No reliable published figure exists for how often intercourse is the trigger, so none is given.
When to call today
Eleven items. Belly pain getting worse alongside a fever, no appetite, or vomiting — the guidance treats that combination as hospital territory. A fever on its own, with no threshold: almost every source reviewed names "a fever" and gives no number; your discharge instructions carry the one that applies to you. Bleeding heavier than light spotting, or heavier than a period. Discharge that turns heavy or starts to smell. Wound redness, warmth, swelling, red streaks, or pus. Stitches coming loose or a cut starting to open. Pain your painkillers aren't touching. Not keeping fluids down. No bowel movement, or trouble passing urine or stool with pain or swelling low in the belly. Burning or stinging when you pee. Hot flashes, sweating, flushing, or a fast pounding heartbeat that arrived with the surgery — if the ovaries came out, that is surgical menopause landing all at once, and the guidance puts it in the call-today tier. Low mood that hasn't lifted after a few weeks.
A discharge sheet and a surgeon's phone number belong together. If something from this list appears at three in the morning, that number is the one to use.
What to keep an eye on
Six things that come with healing, each one paired with the point where it crosses a line.
Light spotting or discharge: ordinary for the first weeks, changes when it turns heavier than light spotting or develops a smell. Tiredness that outlasts the pain: the guidance expects two to four weeks of real fatigue and it commonly runs past the pain; the threshold is tiredness with a fever or heavy bleeding. A dissolving stitch working its way out weeks later: normal, as long as the wound itself stays closed. Pain your painkillers handle: contrasted with pain they don't. Belly swelling: no source reviewed gives a timeline, so no timeline appears; the threshold is swelling with belly pain and trouble passing urine or stool. Feeling low or tearful — sometimes both in one afternoon, and sometimes relieved: sadness and relief are both documented as common after this surgery; the threshold is low mood that's still there after a few weeks.
The words to say
Being worried is not the same as knowing what to say. "I had a hysterectomy three weeks ago and I'm having some pain" is a different call from "I had a laparoscopic hysterectomy three weeks ago and I have pain in my calf behind my knee that started this morning and it's getting worse." The second one gets triaged faster.
Answer the two context questions before hitting "give me the words" — how long since surgery, and which type — and a short script comes back from what you selected: what to lead with, what to list, what they'll ask next, and what to say if they ask what you want. The most urgent tier comes first. Print it and read it straight off the screen.
Frightened by something that is not on any of the three lists? Call anyway. Being worried is reason enough.
Common questions
Is this medical advice?
No. It is a triage aid: it sorts what to do and gives you the words. It cannot examine you or know your case. Your surgeon's discharge instructions outrank everything on this page.
What if what I have isn't on the lists?
Being worried is reason enough to call, and the phone script handles that case. Select nothing, answer the two context questions, hit the button, and you get a way to say "something is frightening me and I am not sure what it is."
How current are the sources?
Sources were checked August 19, 2026. RCOG's recovering-well leaflets, at June to August 2025, are the freshest clinical guidance reviewed. The sources panel inside the tool lists everything with its date.
Does it work without internet?
Yes. Once the page has loaded, the triage lists, the find box, and the phone script work entirely in the browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.