Shaving's not the ONLY method of dealing with facial hair growth but it does happen to be the most effective, 100% reliable way.
As far as restricting your lifestyle, there's absolutely no need whatsoever. Get a good men's-type rechargeable razor and shave wherever you like.
Regarding hospitalization, I agree that's not quite so easy, but ward staff are quite used to getting requests to shave women patients who can't do it for themselves. And while they wouldn't help with leg shaving etc, they'll normally help with facial shaving without any problem. Women with beard growth aren't exactly rare, you know!