I've said it time and again... Hysterectomy is medical abuse of women. Over half a million women undergo hysterectomy each year in the U.S., yet only about 90% are medically unnecessary. Therefore, healthy organs are removed from women on a "routine'"basis. This is not acceptable! Unsuspecting women agree to hysterectomy because gynecologists do not tell them the truth about the consequences of removing their sex organs. In other words, they lie to women. There, I said it. They lie to women. There, I said it again.
They don't tell them that hysterectomy will place them at risk for bone loss, heart disease, brain diseases, various cancers, pelvic organ prolapse, serious eye problems, sexual dysfunction, etc. They don't tell them that by removing their ovaries, they are 'castrating' them. Although 'castration' is the correct medical term for removal of the ovaries, doctors purposely don't use it. They don't use it because they know that women know what 'castration' means. They know women would run. Hysterectomy is big business for gynecologists. Gynecologists know that women would not so readily agree to hysterectomy if they told them the truth about the life-long adverse consequences. Telling the truth would interfere with the gynecologist's biggest money-maker - hysterectomy.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it constitutes "cruel and unusual" punishment to surgically castrate convicted sex offenders. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, even convicted sex offenders do not deserve to be treated less than human. "Requiring castration for rape means we have decided it is acceptable to treat prisoners less than human." Gynecologists evidently believe it's okay to treat women as less than human! Where is the outrage! There should be mutiny in the streets! Yet, there is silence. Only silence.
There are thousands upon thousands of innocent women living in a 'castrated state' via the barbaric and mutilating surgery called hysterectomy. The surgical castration of women in the U.S. absolutely constitutes "cruel and unusual" punishment! It's past time that we, as a civilized society, recognize that hysterectomy and castration is unethical, immoral and altogether wrong. It's past time that we recognize hysterectomy for what it is. It is cruel in most cases! Hysterectomy is a horrific injustice that's been inflicted upon women for far too long. It must end. I created a petition on Change.org regarding this issue. Please don't remain silent about the medical abuse of women. Sign my petition. (See link at bottom of page).
While testifying in Indiana regarding hysterectomy informed consent a few years ago, I met a woman from Michigan who was unnecessarily hysterectomized and castrated without being informed of any of the adverse consequences. Her name is Susan Urquhart and she wrote a book titled 'Uninformed Consent' which includes a chapter titled 'Violence in Medicine'. Following is an excerpt from that chapter in Susan's book:
"Victims of violence are often trusting of the person who commits the crime. Keynote speaker Dr. Lopa A. Meta's presentation at the 21st HERS Conference was about violence in medicine, specifically gynecologist's role in aiding and abetting it. She explained, "In India, there is much less gynecological intervention; and statistically women do just as well, maybe better." Those were strong words! I thought about the validity of her comments and how they particularly pertained to my own personal experience. It had taken all of this time for me to recognize the scope of all of my new limitations, disabilities and losses and to fully comprehend that I was victimized.
After listening to other victims of this violence, I began to see similarities in what they experienced after the crime and my reaction to discovering deliberate unnecessary surgery. We share a loss of status, a sense of betrayal, rage, the inability to move past the transgression and we are unable to forgive the perpetrator. I am convinced I am suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); I wonder if it may be the cause of my nightmares.
Be it a date-rape or a pedophile priest sexually abusing a child, the victims are often trusting of the person who commits the crime, making it even more difficult for the victim to sort out the reasons for the assault and betrayal. I can't help but see the parallels. I consider what happened to me to be analogous to the pedophile priest scandal in the Catholic Church. I see little difference to the harm done to the young victims of sexual abuse and women who are exploited by having had essential body parts unnecessarily removed for profit.
Like the young molested children, women - gynecologists' victims - can only begin the healing when this practice is exposed for what it is and the violators become contrite, apologize and step down. I cry out in the night from my nightmares. I am suffering still. (Susan wrote her book twelve years after her hysterectomy). These are horrible things that gynecologists do to women. Can you imagine removing a man's testicles, shortening his penis, removing nerve endings and a major blood supply to his genital area and expecting him to function sexually again, to feel that he is a man, even with supplemental male hormones!
Yet gynecologists do this to woman every day and send them home to sort it all out; to live the rest of their lives without experiencing orgasm, emotionally, physically and intellectually bankrupt. What makes this realization, the nightmares, the losses so incredulous to me is to see my former gynecologist resume this practice, unscathed. There was no justice!
Apparently, the doctors at my former gynecologist's hospital still view hysterectomy as the 'solution' to women's health problems. The doctors and the administrators at the hospital lent no credence to my complaint regarding the egregious treatment by my former gynecologist. How are women ever going to get the medical profession to change a standard of care that is so permissive to the gynecologist; one that absolves atrocities and critical acts performed upon women for profit.
Susan went on in the next chapter to say "What happened to me was like a date-rape! I was the victim of a violent act perpetuated by somebody I trusted. Since this unfortunate event, in order to make some sense of my life, I reached out to other women who were at risk of incurring the same violence. It was a direction in life I would not have chosen to follow but it was one which I now found I had no choice but to follow.
Like Susan, I would never have chosen the future that was chosen for me by my former gynecologist. I would never have chosen to spend my every waking moment talking about hysterectomy, writing about hysterectomy and, most of all, warning other women about hysterectomy. I feel as if I have no choice but to follow this new direction in my life. I am not the kind of person who can remain silent about injustice or unnecessary suffering... Hysterectomy has forever changed who I am, how I think, how I feel or more appropriately 'how I don't feel'. The woman I knew for forty-six years is gone. She died on the operating room table behind surgery doors at Mercy Hospital Anderson in Cincinnati Ohio on September 27, 2007.
Please click on the following link to sign my petition on Change.org http://www.change.org/petitions/help-stop-unnecessary-hysterectomy-and-castration
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The American Way of Hysterectomy
The following is an excerpt from 'The Hysterectomy Hoax' by Stanley West M.D. The title of this chapter in Dr. West's book is 'The American Way of Hysterectomy'. The title says a lot. America leads the entire world in performing hysterectomies. According to Dr. West, the high rate of hysterectomy in the U.S. tells us more about doctors than it does about disease.
"When I was a resident at a big teaching hospital in the Northeast, the chief of the department of gynecology (let's call him Dr. Smith) performed two or three hysterectomies a day, five days a week. I often assisted him and I can assure you that most of the women we operated on had absolutely nothing wrong with them. It was common knowledge in the hospital that many (if not most) of Dr. Smith's hysterectomies unnecessary. How did he get away with it?
Well, first of all, he was a powerful man, widely respected for his surgical - and political - skills. He had carved out a fiefdom for himself, which he ruled with unquestioned authority. He was also a man of great personal charm. His patients loved him for his warm manner and solicitude. He assiduously courted their goodwill and conveyed to each one the sense that she was a special case deserving of his individual attention. In that respect, he 'sold' hysterectomies as skillfully as he performed them. He made a lot of money.
Every year, over 600,000 American women undergo hysterectomy. At that rate, one out of every three women in this country will have had a hysterectomy by the time she reaches her sixtieth birthday. The very idea that one third of all the women in the United States will develop problems severe enough to warrant hysterectomy just doesn't make sense. If gynecological disorders were so widespread, surely we would see an equivalent rate of hysterectomy elsewhere in the world, but no other country comes close to matching the number of hysterectomies performed in the United States. And there certainly is no indication that women in other countries are worse off than American women because they do not have the benefit of so many hysterectomies.
I'm afraid that the American way of hysterectomy tells us a lot more about doctors than it does about disease. The surprisingly outdated attitudes doctors harbor toward female patients are a big part of the problem. Some very old-fashioned views remain embedded in medical training. It may take a few more decades and more medical consumerism on the part of women before the old attitudes give way to a more rational and scientific basis for hysterectomy."
For an in-depth look at the roots of gynecology and hysterectomy, please read 'Genocide: Hysterectomy, Capitalist Patriarchy and the Medical Abuse of Women'. Gynocide: Hysterectomy, Capitalist
"When I was a resident at a big teaching hospital in the Northeast, the chief of the department of gynecology (let's call him Dr. Smith) performed two or three hysterectomies a day, five days a week. I often assisted him and I can assure you that most of the women we operated on had absolutely nothing wrong with them. It was common knowledge in the hospital that many (if not most) of Dr. Smith's hysterectomies unnecessary. How did he get away with it?
Well, first of all, he was a powerful man, widely respected for his surgical - and political - skills. He had carved out a fiefdom for himself, which he ruled with unquestioned authority. He was also a man of great personal charm. His patients loved him for his warm manner and solicitude. He assiduously courted their goodwill and conveyed to each one the sense that she was a special case deserving of his individual attention. In that respect, he 'sold' hysterectomies as skillfully as he performed them. He made a lot of money.
Every year, over 600,000 American women undergo hysterectomy. At that rate, one out of every three women in this country will have had a hysterectomy by the time she reaches her sixtieth birthday. The very idea that one third of all the women in the United States will develop problems severe enough to warrant hysterectomy just doesn't make sense. If gynecological disorders were so widespread, surely we would see an equivalent rate of hysterectomy elsewhere in the world, but no other country comes close to matching the number of hysterectomies performed in the United States. And there certainly is no indication that women in other countries are worse off than American women because they do not have the benefit of so many hysterectomies.
I'm afraid that the American way of hysterectomy tells us a lot more about doctors than it does about disease. The surprisingly outdated attitudes doctors harbor toward female patients are a big part of the problem. Some very old-fashioned views remain embedded in medical training. It may take a few more decades and more medical consumerism on the part of women before the old attitudes give way to a more rational and scientific basis for hysterectomy."
For an in-depth look at the roots of gynecology and hysterectomy, please read 'Genocide: Hysterectomy, Capitalist Patriarchy and the Medical Abuse of Women'. Gynocide: Hysterectomy, Capitalist
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Today ~ A Tear Fell
I wrote the below poem out of my own pain; obviously. I decided to include it on my site on a separate page because I think it's critical for hysterectomized and/or castrated women to know that they are not alone.
I think perhaps the most devastating consequence of these surgeries is the loss of 'connection' we feel to all of those around us. The ugly truth is most of us suffer in silence..... Hopefully, there is coming a day when that won't be the case.
VERSED - Better Known as the Date-Rape Drug
As I've stated in other posts on my site, Versed was used (against my will) to knock me out so a total hysterectomy could be performed without my consent. Versed is also known as the 'date-rape' drug. It is used to make a person 'compliant' and induces 'conscious sedation'. It causes a person to 'not remember'. Versed rapes a person of their memory. It's a dangerous drug which is not in the best interest of patients.
Before you agree to hysterectomy or any surgery, you need to research this drug. I ran across a very informative blog about Versed shortly after my surgery in 2007 which I highly recommend you visit. The link for that site is www.nomidazolam.blogspot.com
You might also want to visit www.askapatient.com to read more about Versed. Ask-A-Patient is a site where patients write reviews about medications they've taken and they rate them based on their personal experience. My story is posted on the site along with many many others. I met a woman via this site who had a similar experience as me with Versed being administered prior to surgery without consent. Below is her story in her words.
I asked my surgeon 3 weeks before the surgery if I could have the Foley catheter placed while I was awake- he agreed. On the day of my surgery, I asked him again- he agreed. I asked the OR nurses if I could have the cath placed while awake- they all agreed, and one said she'd be the one to do it- it was fine with her.
The anesthesiologist was very snappy with me because I asked if I could keep my tongue jewelry in. She bossed me very rudely " Take it out now!" and the nurse explained that I wanted to keep it in until the very LAST possible moment (because tongue piercings can close very quickly). She said "The tongue ring comes out NOW!"
When the anesthesiologist said "I'll go get the goodies" and left the OR Prep room to get medication, another nurse asked me if I understood that one of the medications they would issue would cause amnesia- I asked if they could hold off on all medications until the catheter was placed- that I wanted to remember it. Every nurse in the room agreed. However, no one explained to me AT THAT TIME, that the medication would cause RETROGRADE amnesia. I don't even know if this is true.
When the anesethesiologist came back, the other nurses told her that I'd like to hold off on all medication until after the catheter was in. She walked behind me and started fiddling around with "something", as she rudely agreed to wait on the meds. She said in a way that frightened me "That is very unusual". I asked her if I had upset her and she said "No! Let's go! Let's do this!" very rudely.
I was immediately wheeled out of the room. Very quickly I started getting drowsy. I don't remember the trip to the OR. I have short snippets of memory- the feeling of being wheeled, waking up with my gown up and my legs open, the pain of the catheter insertion. I remember talking at times throughout this duration- trying to say that I shouldn't be feeling sleepy yet, asking why I was feeling drowsy.
However, I could not see straight, just bodies moving to the right of me and at my head, arms reaching toward me, people grabbing my legs etc. I kept drifting in and out of conciousness, I don't recall anyone answering my questions and my last memory is rolling my head to the right and giving up.
The next thing I remember is waking up (if you could call it that) in recovery, shivering, trying to sit up and talk. There were people talking around me, removing the EKG wires from my chest etc. I was trying to ask questions, and once again, I don't recall anyone responding to me.
They wheeled me to a regular hospital room. When I was able to see the clock, I noted the time, and asked for my husband who was in the waiting room. The nurse came back a while later and said that my husband was not in the waiting room. I began to cry for the next hour, confused and drowsy. Two more nurses who noticed said they'd try to find him.
Finally he came in an hour or an hour and a half later and said he'd been in the waiting room the entire time-asking about me at the desk. It turns out that they just didn't have my paperwork there yet, so my husbands name was never on the "To Page" list.
My surgeon didn't see me for 2 more days. I asked him why I wasn't awake for the cath insertion and he said that I was. He said he was there, I was awake, and talking. As the days go by, I realize that I am completely disappointed in my surgeon-who I really liked. I'm now realizing that he lied to me as well.
He told me that the Versed caused retrograde amnesia-implying that the drug wasn't administered until after the cath insertion, and I just didn't remember it because the amnesia was RETROGRADE. This is an obvious lie, as I REMEMBER fighting sleep, trying to talk, not being able to see straight, and waking up periodically during my move to the OR and the cath insertion. Why would I have an immediate realization that I was getting sleepy, if I wasn't even drugged yet?!
I requested the operative report, which stated that I was placed in a lateral decubitous with low lithotomy position. I am distressed by this as I did not know my legs would be open. I also did not know that they would "prep" my perenium before surgery.
My surgeon failed to tell me that he DEFINATELY WOULD be performing a cystoscopy (a camera up the urethra to view the bladder). I signed a paper that gave consent to perform one- but as I signed it, my surgeon told me that he would only do one in the event that he could not place the stent through the the incisions "sometimes it's difficult that way".
According to the operative report, he WAS able to place the stent through the incisions. He performed the cystoscopy to check the position of the stent after everything else was done. Why then, did he omit the fact that he would check the stent that way? Why do doctors try to hide what they do? I signed the freakin consent...why then not inform me about things happening TO me?!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
'An Intact Woman' by Stanley West M.D.
You don't need a hysterectomy.
It can do you more harm than good.
Those are strong words but the fact is that more than 90 percent of hysterectomies are unnecessary. Worse, the surgery can have long-lasting physical, emotional, and sexual consequences that may undermine your health and well-being. 'Hysterectomy Hoax' is about hysterectomy, the unacceptable risks it poses, and the alternatives available to treat the vast majority of disorders that can lead to surgery.
Hysterectomy is, by definition, the removal of a vital female organ, the uterus. About 40 percent of the time, the ovaries are also removed in the course of surgery. (It's very likely that this percentage is much higher today..). Considering the importance of both these organs, you would assume that a disorder would have to be very serious to justify removing them. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Most of the "female problems" that lead to hysterectomy are medically trivial. They can be uncomfortable. Untreated, some can make your life miserable. But they will not kill you. Why have major surgery to remove an organ (your uterus) or organs (uterus and ovaries) that define you as a woman and are essential to your physical, emotional, and sexual well-being unless your life is in danger? No man would agree to have his sexual and reproductive organs removed for anything short of a life-threatening illness. And no doctor would suggest such a radical course of action.except when the alternative is certain death. It is time for women to recognize hysterectomy for the threat it is and to refuse to have the surgery except when there lives are at stake.
At this point, you must be wondering who I am and why I am so opposed to hysterectomy. I am a gynecologist, a specialist in the treatment of infertility and chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at St. Vincent's Hospital, one of New York city's most prestigious medical institutions. In addition to my infertility practice, I have helped hundreds of women avoid hysterectomy. (It is very likely that the number of women Dr. West has helped is far greater today..).
I didn't set out to crusade against hysterectomy. In medical school, I believed what I was taught: that hysterectomy is good for women. Then, and now, prevailing medical wisdom holds that the uterus is a disposable organ that serves no useful purpose once a woman has all the children she wants. What's more, it is regarded as something of a nuisance. Until menopause, a woman with a uterus will have to concern herself with birth control and contend with the discomforts and messiness of menstruation. And, regardless of age, if she is so inclined, she will worry about the remote risk of developing uterine cancer. Hysterectomy will certainly eliminate the nuisance factor of having a uterus. Some doctors emphasize freedom from menstruation and contraception as selling points when they recommend the surgery. But they do not talk about the negative consequences.
It is no secret that many women develop serious health problems after hysterectomy. Depression, fatigue, urinary disorders, joint aches and pains, and unwelcome changes in sexual desire and response are the most common complaints.No one knows for sure why removing the uterus should bring on certain of these problems, and because we have no medical answers - and no useful help - to offer patients, their complaints often are dismissed as psychological. Indeed, medical students are taught that women who attribute symptoms to hysterectomy must be neurotic, hysterical, or obsessed with their uterus. But, as you will see, these problems are very real and have absolutely nothing to do with a woman's mental stability.
You don't need a hysterectomy.
It can do you more harm than good.
Those are strong words but the fact is that more than 90 percent of hysterectomies are unnecessary. Worse, the surgery can have long-lasting physical, emotional, and sexual consequences that may undermine your health and well-being. 'Hysterectomy Hoax' is about hysterectomy, the unacceptable risks it poses, and the alternatives available to treat the vast majority of disorders that can lead to surgery.
Hysterectomy is, by definition, the removal of a vital female organ, the uterus. About 40 percent of the time, the ovaries are also removed in the course of surgery. (It's very likely that this percentage is much higher today..). Considering the importance of both these organs, you would assume that a disorder would have to be very serious to justify removing them. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Most of the "female problems" that lead to hysterectomy are medically trivial. They can be uncomfortable. Untreated, some can make your life miserable. But they will not kill you. Why have major surgery to remove an organ (your uterus) or organs (uterus and ovaries) that define you as a woman and are essential to your physical, emotional, and sexual well-being unless your life is in danger? No man would agree to have his sexual and reproductive organs removed for anything short of a life-threatening illness. And no doctor would suggest such a radical course of action.except when the alternative is certain death. It is time for women to recognize hysterectomy for the threat it is and to refuse to have the surgery except when there lives are at stake.
At this point, you must be wondering who I am and why I am so opposed to hysterectomy. I am a gynecologist, a specialist in the treatment of infertility and chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at St. Vincent's Hospital, one of New York city's most prestigious medical institutions. In addition to my infertility practice, I have helped hundreds of women avoid hysterectomy. (It is very likely that the number of women Dr. West has helped is far greater today..).
I didn't set out to crusade against hysterectomy. In medical school, I believed what I was taught: that hysterectomy is good for women. Then, and now, prevailing medical wisdom holds that the uterus is a disposable organ that serves no useful purpose once a woman has all the children she wants. What's more, it is regarded as something of a nuisance. Until menopause, a woman with a uterus will have to concern herself with birth control and contend with the discomforts and messiness of menstruation. And, regardless of age, if she is so inclined, she will worry about the remote risk of developing uterine cancer. Hysterectomy will certainly eliminate the nuisance factor of having a uterus. Some doctors emphasize freedom from menstruation and contraception as selling points when they recommend the surgery. But they do not talk about the negative consequences.
It is no secret that many women develop serious health problems after hysterectomy. Depression, fatigue, urinary disorders, joint aches and pains, and unwelcome changes in sexual desire and response are the most common complaints.No one knows for sure why removing the uterus should bring on certain of these problems, and because we have no medical answers - and no useful help - to offer patients, their complaints often are dismissed as psychological. Indeed, medical students are taught that women who attribute symptoms to hysterectomy must be neurotic, hysterical, or obsessed with their uterus. But, as you will see, these problems are very real and have absolutely nothing to do with a woman's mental stability.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Guest Post – Keep Your Midlife Sex Organs!
Dear Midlife Lady,
I was so taken by Robin Karr’s comments on our guest post on October 27th I asked Robin if she would personally write a guest blog for Sensibly Selfish about menopause and women’s sex organs. Her response is so important and the message so clear I have decided to print it here just as she wrote it. Here is the email she sent me…
"Hi Kay,
I was thinking off and on today about what I should write about hysterectomy; about the removal of a woman’s SEX organs. My thoughts ran far and wide… I kept coming back to what my 23 year old son wrote though. He’s the one who connected the dots for me regarding the reproductive organs being SEX organs that aren’t disposable.
The truth is my own son taught me that my SEX organs were removed. It was as if a light had been switched on. For the first time, I fully realized just how much I’d lost via hysterectomy – via the removal of my SEX organs.
I falsely believed that my ‘reproductive’ organs had been removed. I believed this because I’d been taught to believe this. Additionally, the gynecologist who removed my SEX organs assured me I didn’t need them since I was no longer reproducing. My son helped me to understand and realize that nothing could be further from the truth – nothing.
Of course, I realize this more and more five years post-surgery as my health and sexuality continually decline. Women desperately need to think of their sex organs as their SEX organs because that is what they are. They are SEX organs which are used for the purpose of reproduction (or not) for a period of time. Once women are able to think of their SEX organs in this way, there will be complete understanding that they’re necessary for life; not just until middle-age.
I’m so proud of my son for having the courage to face what I initially could not face for myself. Please click here to read what my son wrote about hysterectomy after attending a 10-hour hysterectomy conference in New York, with me."
I thank Robin for having the courage to tell her story. Please leave your comments in the boxes below and I will make sure Robin receives them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)