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 The surprisingly outdated attitudes doctors harbor toward female patients are a big part of the problem.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 Patriarchy, and the ...