Many women worry about sex after a hysterectomy. We assume by your question that it is your husband, not you, who thinks sexual functioning has changed since your surgery.I am a 44-year-old married mother of three. A year ago, my doctor advised me to have a hysterectomy. My research and a second opinion proved him correct. I had the surgery but kept my cervix and ovaries. Since then, my husband complains that sex is not the same. He hints that I am not the woman I used to be. Did the hysterectomy affect my ability to sexually please my husband? —Jodi F.Often, women who have had hysterectomies are viewed as less womanly, or less sexual, since they can no longer have children. If this is the case and your partner’s view of you depends on your ability to have children, this issue needs clarification. If a woman’s status increases in the eyes of her partner because she can have children, that is a belief often based on two potentially overlapping roles of women: one, that their sexual functioning is for the purpose of having children; the other, that their sexual functioning is for pleasure only. Actually, women’s sexuality includes both procreation and recreation. They can enjoy sex and never have children and they can have children and rarely enjoy sex.