Re: What's wrong with hysterectomy?

[Guest guest]

This is just talk what people in the decision making mode need facts not words

about progress and the male dominence in medicine. We need the facts not hipe.

This is the dialogue that we do not need. Please answer the question with facts

(unbiased) not from HERS foundation. I do not have a emotional attachment to my

uterus but I do have a physical one. and I want to make the best decision for

me.

cecile572001 wrote:

I don't think that there is anything wrong with hysterectomy - if it

is the only effective treatment as is the case with cancer or often

adenomyosis. My mother had a hyst and is one of the (seemingly)

majority of women who say that it was the best thing that they ever

did. However, when she had her surgery the options that we have

nowadays did not exist. Women were also routinely told that they

should have their ovaries removed so that they wouldn't get ovarian

cancer. Then they could take HRT for the rest of their lives to

replace the hormones the ovaries make. Of course we have since

found out it's not that easy. Now ovary removal isn't as automatic

as it was 20 years ago. That's called progress. In the past women

also routinely underwent mastectomy when diagnosed with breast

cancer. Fortunately enough women questioned this tried and true

therapy and more and more women are able to save their breasts.

Again, that's progress. And having a breast removed probably

doesn't have anywhere near the same physical consequences that

removing the uterus does. But breasts are nice to look at and men

kind of like women to have them, so more breasts are saved now than

in the past. But the uterus is not " out there " and visible, so we

are belittled for wanting to hang on to it. But for some reason men

with prostate cancer aren't automatically told to have it removed -

and they actually have a malignant condition! Nobody criticizes a

man for having an " emotional attachement " to his prostate. Nobody

says " well, you are done having children, why do you need your

prostate? " It will be through groups like this and women who don't

blindly do what their doctors recommend that hysterectomy will be

used appropriately - to treat life threatening conditions - rather

than every " female " condition out there, and that will be progress.

[Guest guest]

Reading women's stories on this website:

http://www.angelfire.com/fl/endohystnhrt/stories.html is reason

enough for me to not have a hyst when there are other procedures

available to to treat my benign fibroids.

> This is just talk what people in the decision making mode need

facts not words about progress and the male dominence in medicine.

We need the facts not hipe. This is the dialogue that we do not

need. Please answer the question with facts (unbiased) not from

HERS foundation. I do not have a emotional attachment to my uterus

but I do have a physical one. and I want to make the best decision

for me.

>

[Guest guest]

,

There are no hard and fast rules for this. One of the things I have

learned as a library science student is that all information filters

through a lens of bias, either our own or the creator of the information.

Bias does not make information " bad " (my favorite example of this was

writing a paper on the Reformation and using the Catholic Encyclopedia as a

major resource), but sometimes you have the read beyond the bias to get to

what is good.

What is annoying about the HERS Foundation website is that all of the

information is stated as " this is what will happen to you if you have a

hysterectomy " , and that just isn't true. Your *chances* of those things

happening to you *increase* if you have a hysterectomy. That these things

are possible needs to be a part of your decision making, just as the

possibility that fibroids could grow back after an MYO needs to a part of

decision making.

Unfortunatly, ultimately you have to make this decision alone. The factors

that go into your decision about your physical well-being are yours alone.

You asked what is wrong with hysterectomy. The answers you got are factors

for the women who answered. They may not be factors for you, but this is

*exactly* the kind of dialogue that is needed: you may already know what

alternatives are available, what the possible side effects are, but many

women *do not*.

The historical, medical, emotional, and physical baggage that comes with

hysterectomies may be " what's wrong with hysterectomy " for some women.

That may not be true for you, but it is for some of us.

The factors that go into my decision have to do with my age, my desire to

have children, that am in a relatively new relationship, that I am working

full time and am in school part time, that I am not physically *that* bad

off, but I know everything will get worse, and that, frankly, there is no

right solution for me right now. Taking all of that into account, I am

opting for a wait and watch approach, along with birth control pills to try

to control bleeding.

I'm wrong, There is one hard and fast rule. If you have a hysterectomy,

you will no longer have uterine fibroids. Or your period. And you will

not need to use birth control. That's it. No other guarantees, good or

bad.

--Lee

--On Thursday, October 23, 2003 1:16 AM +0000

uterinefibroids wrote:

> Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 06:01:37 -0700 (PDT)

>

> Subject: Re: What's wrong with hysterectomy?

>

> This is just talk what people in the decision making mode need facts not

> words about progress and the male dominence in medicine. We need the

> facts not hipe. This is the dialogue that we do not need. Please answer

> the question with facts (unbiased) not from HERS foundation. I do not

> have a emotional attachment to my uterus but I do have a physical one.

> and I want to make the best decision for me.