The reason it is sometimes recommended that birth control be stopped or IUD’s removed before surgery is that hormonal supplementation can influence the incidence of blood clots after surgery. One of the few things that could actually kill you after a surgery like you have described is if you would get a blood clot in your leg that traveled to your heart or lungs – which is called a pulmonary embolus. There are very specific risk factors associated with blood clots and every patient who undergoes a surgery these days is rated on their likelihood of having a blood clot. If that risk is too high, then more precautions need to be taken to prevent a clot – one of which is using a blood thinner for surgery. Blood thinners help to prevent a fatal blood clot, but can also cause a lot of problems with bleeding which can be dangerous and may necessitate additional surgery. If you are someone who is borderline for needing a blood thinner, your surgeon may ask you to stop your birth control or remove an IUD that provides hormone supplementation in order to take your level of risk down to a level where you would not need to take on the extra risk of a blood thinner to stay safe. If you are low risk for clotting it probably doesn’t matter as much. Just understand that your surgeon wants to make the surgery as safe as he/she can for you and so will recommend the safest route. Good luck with your surgery, I’m sure you’ll do great!