un becoming (currently showing in NYC)

[Guest guest]

I did attend the HERS conference in NYC last weekend, and while it is, as Carla

said, mainly targeted at women who have had hysterectomies, there were quite a

number of us who have not had this surgery and a lot for us to hear. I was also

happy to see quite a number of men attending with their partners. I learned a

lot and was happy I attended.

And very, very impressed with Dr. Levine, from Cambridge,

Massachusetts. If I was still looking for somebody to perform a myomectomy (too

late, mine's been done well already), I would definitely consider travelling a

long distance for him. It was so clear what a really-knowledgeable, committed,

sensitive, person he is. One point he made several times was that the decision

on whether or not to have surgery should always be your decision; not the

doctor's decision. Only you know if you need the surgery or not. If your

discomfort is severe enough to merit surgery then you decide to have it.

I plan to post more on this conference shortly, but in the meantime, I want to

write about the play, called un becoming, that was written to open at this

conference, and did. I attended it and would highly recommend it.

I must admit that I expected it to be very amateur, but it was quite

professional, performed by professional actors. It's a 90 minute story, about a

woman who has fibroids and goes to her doctor, who tells her she needs surgery

ASAP. She tries hard to get answers as to what will be done and why, but she is

patronized with attempts to convince her that the doctors (including her gyn

husband) know best, and she need not worry about the details.

It was very moving and had many of us in tears.

I would encourage anybody whose city is visited by this show to try to attend

and bring friends. The play will be in NYC until the end of February (at The

45th Street Theater). Especially the women who are considering having

hysterectomies but want to know more. Who want to understand why some women are

trying to make sure they understand all the possible outcomes.

I have been wondering, since I joined this group, and hear a fair number of

fairly negative stories about hysterectomy, why so many women eagerly recommend

it to their friends. I think there are 2 reasons. One is that I'm sure there

are many women who have hysterectomies and are happy with the results. But for

the ones who are not happy with the results, there is one line in the play that

really moved me. Something about how " sometimes, it's so much easier to deny

the truth than to deal with it " .

Do a web-search on un becoming (yes, two words) for various links. Maybe some

of you can find when the production is going to your city and organize a group

outing. I believe that in some cities, it will be a staged reading rather than

a full-production, but I would bet that even as a staged reading, it will be

worth seeing.

R.