Hysterectomy: Contributing Factor to Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Women often undergo a hysterectomy in order to eliminate fibroid tumors, heavy bleeding or as the result of severe symptoms of Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP). Unfortunately, a hysterectomy can also contribute to pelvic organ prolapse. In fact, more than 10 percent of women with hysterectomies eventually experience some form of POP. This is because pelvic organs and tissues work together to provide support in the pelvic cavity. When the uterus is removed, it has a notable effect on surrounding organs and tissues.

In mild cases, little or no treatment is needed. However, women who have more severe prolapse may require surgical intervention.

How a Hysterectomy Contributes to Pelvic Organ Prolapse

The organs and tissues in the pelvis are interconnected. Special connective tissues support this group of organs, attaching them to the pelvic bone structure and the sacrum. When something is removed from the group, such as the uterus, it disrupts the structure. Slowly, weakening tissues begin to pull away from the pelvic structure. Other organs, such as the cervix, bladder, urethra or rectum, can begin to collapse into the vagina.

As many as 1 in 9 women who have had hysterectomies will begin to experience a specific type of POP called vaginal vault prolapse. In this type of prolapse, the top portion of the vagina — called the vaginal vault — begins to collapse onto itself. In severe cases, the vagina can literally begin to turn itself inside out, and a woman will be able to feel or see her vaginal vault at the entrance of her vagina.

Often, doctors recommend surgery to correct vaginal vault prolapse. The most common surgery involves the use of transvaginal mesh. This product can have many negative effects on women, such as mesh erosion, infection, and vaginal scarring. However, there are less invasive treatments that can help women with mild to moderate vaginal vault prolapse avoid risky surgical alternatives, especially those requiring the use of a high-risk medical device called transvaginal mesh.

Non-invasive Treatment for Pelvic Organ Prolapse

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) recommends that, in most cases, women with mild to moderate cases of POP should exhaust conservative methods of treatment before attempting more invasive methods such as surgery.

 •Lifestyle. Excessive lifting, coughing or straining can exacerbate the symptoms of POP. By eating well, exercising to maintain a healthy weight, and quitting unhealthy habits such as smoking, women can mitigate POP symptoms.

 •Exercises. There are specific exercises that work to strengthen the pelvic floor and upper vaginal muscles. The most famous of these are Kegel exercises, however, women should discuss other exercises that work on specific pelvic tissues with their doctor or physical therapist.

 •Physical Therapy. There are physical therapists who specialize in pelvic physical therapy. They work with women to treat their specific symptoms using exercises, advice on posture, as well as electrical stimulation and biofeedback techniques.

 •Vaginal Pessaries. When properly fitted and inserted, women can use a vaginal pessary to provide support for their pelvic floor and upper vagina. Pessaries are especially beneficial to women experiencing vaginal vault prolapse. They can also prevent incontinence.

 Non-invasive treatments are preferred over surgical treatments because of the complications involved with some of the surgical methods. Many women have suffered from surgery with vaginal mesh and have sought compensation though the filings of transvaginal mesh lawsuits against mesh manufacturers. When surgical intervention is needed to treat POP, women should discuss surgical options with their doctor to find the safest and most effective treatment for their symptoms.

Elizabeth Carrollton writes to inform the general public about defective medical devices and dangerous drugs for Drugwatch.com. 

Mothers Who Have Lost...

Mothers who have lost a child/children endure gut-wrenching pain. Pain can be ennobling and inspiring. There are times when pain can cause us to mature in character. At least; this is what I kept telling myself after my two babies (ages one and two) were taken from me in 1998 via their father. (They never came home by the way and are 14 and 15 today).

I still think of them as the precious babies I dedicated to God just before they were taken from me. It takes my breath away to think of them as teenagers... I simply can't. I have two baby books filled with empty pages; pages that were meant to be filled with so many memories and milestones; like their first smile, their first tooth, their first word, their first step, their first day in school, etc.

I wanted the pain I felt physically, mentally and spiritually to help me to mature in character. That was my desire. That would be a good thing I kept telling myself if that were indeed the end result of this horrific tragedy. I wanted so much to be inspired somehow by what happened and to inspire others... I wanted to help other moms who had lost a child/children to know it is possible to go on in the midst of unspeakable pain.

However, this process of maturing via pain is not easy; not easy at all. Since the taking of my children, I do not feel mature in character at times. In fact, I feel less mature in character much of the time. I often do not feel generous in spirit as I once did. I feel cheated and want to hold onto whatever I have left to hold on to. I do not feel hopeful and full of faith as I once did. To be honest, I feel self-centered at times. I feel impoverished physically, mentally and spiriturally at times too. The truth is that pain can make us tired and weak. It can make us depressed, anxious and fearful. Pain can and does make us feel many of the emotions I have expressed above.

Nobody says this really. Nobody wants to say this, but it is true. For women, I do not believe there is any greater pain we can experience than losing a child/children; a precious child/children we carried inside our own bodies. Only God who created and 'knew' our precious babies before they were even formed in our wombs can mend our utterly broken hearts. David said in Psalms "When my heart overwhelms me; lead me to the rock that is higher than I". There is no other place to turn in my opinion.

To every mother who has lost a child in any way, I want to tell you I understand your deep pain and I encourage you to look to God for help to heal day by day by day. Healing is a very slow process and one that does not come easily. I try to focus on the fact that God says he is the author and finisher of my faith. To that end, I have to believe that he has not allowed anything (no matter how terrible or tragic) to happen in my life that will 'ultimately' destroy me or his purpose for my life.
May God bless every mother who has lost a child/children; especially as they 'remember' on Mother's Day.

I also want to say to all women, who like myself, have been robbed of their precious womb and other vital sex organs... I understand the trauma and pain you endure on every level every day. I always thought the worst pain I would ever know would be the pain of having my precious babies taken from me.

Then, I met a gynecologist who changed my life forever and in ways I could never have imagined. I lost many years with my youngest babies only to have a sociopath gynecologist sterilize me without my consent; ensuring I could never pursue the happiness of becoming pregnant and giving birth again. There are no words... The loss is so great. My heart is overwhelmed; overwhelmed for me and for so many women like me.

So... I look to God; the author and finisher of my faith. I know that he is angry with the doctors who  rob women of their God-given wombs and I know God will repay. He says he will. I do want to add as a final note that there is one bright light in my life and that light is my oldest son. Raising him gave me the will to go on when I didn't have it. He is a precious young man and I'm so proud of him. I'm so thankful for him. Mother's Day is bitter-sweet. Although much is bitter and deeply hurtful for me; I am thankful for the sweet - my oldest son.

Little Ethics in Modern Medicine

The barbaric and mutilating hysterectomy I endured without my consent in September 2007 has necessarily motivated me to re-think my beliefs about the field of medicine and also about the way doctors view and treat their patients. I used to believe that doctors were ethical and that they went into the field of medicine because they cared about helping heal the sick; whether physical or mental. At one time I believe this may have been true of most doctors. I now believe, based on overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that most doctors practice medicine for money and power and have little regard for their patients.

The doctors I speak of are not ethical and do not truly care about their patients. These doctors are the same people who tell you to vaccinate your children; to treat your cancer with chemotherapy; to take statin drugs and to staple your stomach in order to lose weight. These are the same doctors who amputate women's life-sustaining sex organs for no medical reason and often without their consent. I'm talking about millions of men, women and children who are betrayed by their own doctors. When over half a million women each year leave hospitals and clinics without their sex organs; something is terribly terribly wrong.

These are the monsters of our medical system; the ethically deficient and criminally-minded 'medical molesters'. They commit heinous acts of what can only be called medical violence against their patients. They are surgeons who, without consent, 'practice' various types of unwarranted exams on unconscious men and women who are under their 'care'. They remove organs that are not diseased for profit.

This is what goes on behind closed doors in hospitals across the country, under the surgical blankets and behind the screens in our hospitals and clinics. Innocent patients are sodomized, victimized and violated by their health care providers whom they trust. Sadly, this is how medical students are being trained as part of their medical education.

Make no mistake..... I'm not talking about a rogue pervert physician here and there. Rather, I'm talking about an institutionalized psychopathic power trip that hints at the way conventional medicine is carried out across the United States and the world. It reminds me of the Milgram experiments where students were very easily trained to apply deadly levels of electroshock jolts to innocent victims merely because they were ordered to do so by an instructor.

Those experiments served to substantiate that 70 percent of people will torture other human beings if encouraged to do so by someone in an apparent position of authority. Think about that...... Search for information about the Milgram experiments (beginning in 1961) via the Internet to learn about how easily a person can be influenced to harm, torture and even kill another person/persons for the sole reason that someone in authority told them to do so.

My warning to anyone who ever undergoes surgery and wakes up with a throbbing rectum or obvious physical abuse of other body parts or body parts missing altogether; it's probably not just in your head nor are you 'crazy' for wondering if something more happened to you in surgery than what you were told or consented to. You may have been violated by medical students or physicians who think there's absolutely nothing wrong with exploiting your body for their own purposes while you're unconscious. I believe these doctors obviously maintain the attitude that what the patient doesn't know won't hurt them.

Sadly, your disease is their treatment experiment. Your suffering is their 'amusement'. Your rectum or vagina is their training aid. You are there essentially to be treated like an unconscious rag doll by medical staff and medical students who have lost any and all sense of the meaning behind the term 'healthcare'. These are despicable people and the fact that they are tomorrow's doctors helps explain why health care is such an utter failure on every level: physical, ethical and especially spiritual.

Having said all of the above, I must also say that not all conventional doctors are psychopaths. There are good doctors among the bad ones and there are even conventional doctors who actually have ethics and would never even think of violating patients in such a way. Some doctors even manage to make it through medical school without losing their moral compass and we should respect those who do. In fact, those are the doctors we must seek out.

Many doctors deserve tremendous credit for their miraculous work in emergency rooms, saving lives and treating acute injuries with remarkable skill and efficiency. Conventional medicine has an important role in society and there are times when rectal exams and vaginal exams are medically necessary. However, when conducted, they should always be done with consent unless special circumstances exist such as an unconscious gunshot victim requiring acute emergency care that requires immediate action on the part of doctors and surgeons.

I have to admit that I get extremely depressed when I think about the horror of all of this. I refuse to believe that things will remain this way. Hopefully, we will soon see the era of Big-Pharma medicine crumble. The mythology behind vaccines is increasingly being exposed as quackery and fraud. The insanity of harmful mammograms and unnecessary surgical procedures is also being increasingly reported and exposed. Times are changing and conventional medicine is resorting to outright desperation to keep itself in business at a time when most people are heading in the direction of holistic medicine based on patient compassion and understanding.

I doubt you would see naturopathic doctors (N.D.s) violating their patients in the way that conventional doctors often do. N.D.s, homeopaths, herbalists and massage therapists are usually compassionate and caring individuals who respect their patients as real human beings. I've encountered many such N.D.'s and homeopath doctors since being harmed by hysterectomy. These doctors tend to honor your boundaries and they practice the healing arts with a genuine sense of ethics that's too often lacking in the world of conventional medicine.

Before deciding to see an N.D. or a homeopath doctor, I actually had one conventional doctor throw my medical chart at me as he scolded me for opting to take bioidentical hormones rather than the synthetic kind that have proven to harm and even kill women. This doctor told me outright that he would no longer agree to see me if I continued to go 'outside' the standard practice of medicine. I left his office in tears..... I felt so small and helpless and so powerless.

You and I do have power in all this though. When faced with any kind of health or medical situation, you and I always have a choice of where to spend our money. We have a choice of what doctor we allow to treat us. I encourage you to avoid choosing conventional doctors and their superbug-infested hospitals and clinics. Whenever possible, I encourage you to choose naturopathic health care offered by compassionate and sensitive health professionals who treat you like a valued human being and respect your boundaries.

I wish what I am telling you about today's conventional doctors was fictional but it's reality. Conventional medicine does much damage to children with psychiatric drugs and to cancer patients via chemotherapy poisons. The widespread vaccination of children with utterly horrifying chemical ingredients that are injected into their bodies is yet another example of the harm routinely caused by conventional medicine.

The hope that keeps me going is that I believe this era of medical violence against children and adults is crumbling by the day and I believe there will come a day in the near future when Big-Pharma CEOs spend their days in prison, when organ-raping surgeons are convicted of their crimes and when vaccines are rejected by the vast majority of people who come to realize the truth about how harmful they really are.

There are those, even within my own family, who think I should just 'get over' what happened to me and keep my mouth shut. I can assure anyone reading this blog that as long as I have one breath left in me; I will never keep quiet about the horrors of modern/conventional medicine I have come to know so personally. If I refuse to talk about what's really happening behind closed doors in our hospitals and clinics, then I fail to prevent it from happening to other victims in the future. I cannot do anything about what was done to me. I can never get my organs or life and health back. My life has forever been altered in ways I could never have imagined in my worst nightmares. But.... I can warn others and I intend to do so until I'm dead.

Mother's Day 2011

As I sit here typing this post on Mother's Day 2011; it is with a very broken heart and a very heavy heart. It is broken for many reasons..... I have a lot of personal loss in my life such as my two youngest children (Matthew and Laura) missing from my life since 1998. I could never put into type what that loss alone has done to me. There are so many kinds of losses though.....

There are women who want to be a mother yet can't for one reason or another and I think about how they must hurt on Mother's Day. I also think about mothers who have lost children to death or in a custody battle (such as my own case). I think of mothers who have miscarried and never had the chance to hold or know their child. I think of mothers whose children have been abducted and are missing; a pain and open wound like no other.

I also think of mothers who have lost their mothers to death and I know that time never heals the wound of losing a parent. There is a legacy... but the loss is just so tremendous. I think about all the mothers who have children fighting in the armed services who are far away from home and many of them in danger. I can't imagine the constant worry....

And of course... I think about all the millions of women who have been needlessly hysterectomized and are unable to know the joy of being a mother altogether or mothers like me who have children but wanted more and can't have more due to being hysterectomized. There are no words for such a needless loss... Mother's Day is certainly a happy day for many but it is also a sad day for many too.

For mothers who have children... treasure them and love them. Hold on to them and don't let go. For mothers who have lost children for whatever the reason; I'm sorrowful with you today as you no doubt remember your loss on Mother's Day especially. My heart aches with you.

You're Not a Victim If You Take Action!

You're Not a Victim If You Take Action!

You're not a victim if you take action - some kind of action.

And while contacting the police, lawyers, other women, lawmakers, etc. might make me feel less like a victim externally, more important to me is the necessity of no longer feeling like a victim internally. I have never allowed myself to assume the role of victim. I don't want to do that now.

And for me, that means to write. The way I process, heal and communicate is through my written words. Ultimately, as negative and painful as the experience of being hysterectomized and castrated was for me, it's made me connect with and understand who I am.. Who I AM at the deepest level of my being.

When my former doctor took the violent actions he did against me, something was taken from me in that instant: my value and my worth. As a human being. As a woman.

In that moment, I was nothing more than an object that happened to possess the pieces (the body parts) necessary to make money for that doctor (and that hospital). In that moment, I was treated as property (though never purchased) that he felt he had the right and ability to touch and use for his own purpose.

In that moment... I had no voice, no thoughts, no feelings, no soul, no mind, no emotions, no power and no potential. I only had legs and what lived between them. And he felt entitled to that; entitled to take something so precious and protected from me without actually knowing or caring anything about me. I hardly knew that doctor. I met him less than two months before he violated me and subsequently ruined my life.


This is how I call it what it is:

Ugly. Violent. Shameful. Unacceptable. Wrong. Immoral. Evil.

This is how I accept it for what it is:

Painful. Hurtful. Discriminatory. Disrespectful. Gut-Wrenching. Haunting.

This is how I soften it, reign it in, make peace with it, and turn it into something I can at least live with and not lose my sanity completely.

I feel. I connect. I cry. I learn. I speak. I fight. I write.

My horror in this situation is matchless to anything I have ever experienced before. I no longer stand and cry like a child though. I remember my strength and I yell like a woman. And then I remember that I do not yell only for my own sake, but for the sake of millions of other women. I yell my story. I yell our story.

Never before have I been in the position of knowing what it feels like to have something taken from me in such a horrific and barbaric way.

Until now.

'THE RAPE'

I can't explain the devastation, the utter sadness and deep sense of loss that settled into my heart and soul the morning I woke up and realized I had been gutted and castrated. I no longer felt the need to function as I once did; as a human being. I felt more like a paper doll, flat and empty. I knew on some level that I was still a human being but it did not feel that way anymore. I would never feel that way again.

I titled this post 'RAPE' because that is what they did to me - the doctor and all who assisted him. They RAPED me in the most violent way. I re-live it day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day. A nurse put me to sleep through my IV without telling me and they whisked me away to an operating room, strapped me down to a cold table and spread my legs apart and proceeded to amputate six healthy functioning organs from my body. I said NO. I didn't need this surgery. I said NO. I did not sign for this surgery. I said NO. I said NO. I said NO. I said NO. I said NO. The doctor and O.R. team did not care that I said NO. They stole my soul that day. I woke up in complete devastation; mentally, physically and spiritually.

It's been over three years and I'm no better. I'm worse. I walk around like a zombie - like a dead woman walking. I don't feel like a person. Nothing is the same. Nothing makes sense. Songs I once loved don't make sense anymore. The sky is not blue any longer and the birds don't sing; at least I no loner hear them... They make noise to me now. I feel like I live in some type of alternate world; some type of hell on earth that only those who have been through what I've been through know about.

Doctors who RAPE women as I was RAPED are criminals. Hospitals give them a place to commit their crimes. They act as agents. This is so evil and yet it's true. I melt into my bed at night on the nights I can sleep at all and pray I don't wake up. John Cougar once sang "Life goes on even after the thrill of living is gone." My life has gone on but it is not worth living. I'm completely empty and feel nothing but pain and emptiness.

I pray that God will use me and what's happened to me to help stop other women from having to endure the gut-wrenching trauma I live with day and night. If I can't make a difference for other women, then I'd rather not be here. My sole purpose and focus now is to try to stop this mutilating, destructive, senseless surgery called HYSTERECTOMY.

Please, if you are reading this post, tell every woman you know about the true consequences of HYSTERECTOMYAND CASTRATION. Don't be silent. This matters too much. Tell someone; even a stranger. It doesn't matter who you tell. Just TELL. Keep telling until this barbaric mutilation of women ends.

I Woke Up a Different Person

I watched a 48 Hours Mystery this past weekend and it prompted me to do a lot of thinking about crime, suffering, justice, injustice, etc. The story, based on a true story, was a sad one as usual... There was a young couple out on a date taking pictures of a beautiful full moon when, out of nowhere, a young man appeared and shot them both several times and left them for dead. The young woman survived against all odds.

My boyfriend watched this story along with me and he continually commented about how the 'bastard' that shot them should be killed. He wanted the young man's family to have closure and the young woman who survived to receive closure/justice. He was so upset about how this young couple was attacked for no reason and lives turned upside down; people who were happy and trusting were now angry, sad and depressed.

I began thinking about how what happened to me via hysterectomy was even worse than what this young couple endured. People don't see it that way though. They don't see it that way because a doctor committed a crime against me; not just your everyday 'ordinary criminal'. And... this is important... What happened to me did not happen out in the woods or the side of the road but IN A HOSPITAL; a place where one should be able to reasonably expect help and/or healing.

I remember clearly the police officer I spoke with about what happened to me telling me that my case was 'CIVIL' because it happened in a hospital and it was a doctor who had me knocked out against my will and stole my organs. I have been the victim of rape twice in my life. I was in a bank robbery with a man holding a gun and a bomb. These were horrific crimes but they happened at the hands of someone I did not know or trust and they happened in places where one could reasonably expect a crime to take place. For this reason, I survived the rapes and hold-up much better than the unconsented hysterectomy and castration.

In my case, I had no reason to expect that a doctor would remove six of my healthy organs; especially without my consent. Talk about being horrified beyond words.... I still am. I don't know if I will ever be able to put down in type what this horrific crime against me by a trusted doctor has done to me. I need closure and justice just like the woman in the 48 Hours Mystery story needed closure and justice.

Society does not recognize hysterectomy and castration as a horrible injustice against women. Every minute of every day in hospitals across the U.S., women are being gutted and castrated for money. 90% of hysterectomies performed are medically unnecessary.  Women are too often 'forced' into this surgery by their trusted doctors. Many women, like myself, do not even consent and yet their life-sustaining organs are 'stolen' anyway. Sadly, women are left to find a way to cope in a situation where there is no cure or 'fix'. It's devastating......

I want to state a very bold fact about hysterectomy that most do not consider. Other than brain surgery, hysterectomy is the only surgery that can truly change who you are; who you have been your entire life. You can have a limb amputated but you are still the same person inside. You can be burned terribly and disfigured but you are still the same person inside. I could give countless examples here but my point is that hysterectomy removes not just a part of you; it removes YOU.

I woke up from surgery and immediately knew I was not the same person. It has been more than three years and I grow further away from that person more and more every day. If I could have one wish it would be to have my female (sex) organs back and to be the woman I was before hysterectomy altered my life forever.

Every organ in a woman's body; including the brain, heart, thyroid gland, etc. needs hormones to function properly. There are over 400 receptor sites in a woman's body that must have hormones tell them what to do and when to do it. When these hormones are taken via hysterectomy and castration; a woman's body is violently thrown into total chaos and havoc. Every organ is affected. The body is devastated.... Worst of all, there is no way to 'fix' it.

A woman's personality changes. Emotions are blunted. Life becomes dull. I feel like the walking dead. God never intended for women to live without the womb he gave them or their five other sex organs. When doctors amputate these life-sustaining organs, they are deciding your future. I did not chose the future I now have to face. I would never have chosen the hell that is now my life and will be forever. There is no going back. The damage is permanent.

Please consider personality change when considering a hysterectomy and then run......