The tide is turning!
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The tide is turning! “I am still hoping to hear more about women who are past it all because they said no. It would be comforting to know there are women out there who had the same horrible symptoms, a big fat confused uterus, lived with it, resisted hysterectomy and are now through menopause and happy that they persevered.”
Women who were told they need a hysterectomy have expressed to HERS a strong desire and need to hear from other women who are/or were determined not to have their uterus and ovaries removed. They need your support. They are fighting pressure from gynecologists, and often well meaning family and friends, to undergo the surgery.
They want to hear from other women who are going through this now, and others whose health problems eventually resolved, either with treatment or just waiting it out until their symptoms subsided.
What gives women the knowledge and power to fight against having their female organs removed? It is the collective experience of vast numbers of hysterectomized women who are sounding the alarm for intact women. These women reveal how they were bullied or ensnared into the operating room, and how the damaging effects of hysterectomy ruined their health, their sex life, their relationships and their careers. The responsibility lies with the doctor to give women correct, factual and complete information on the consequences of hysterectomy and castration. A law requiring doctors to give women HERS female anatomy video, is necessary for informed consent.
Hysterectomized women want "intact" women to know that they, too, were smart, savvy, asked good questions and did not blindly or blithely agree to surgery. The vast majority of hysterectomies are performed on women who agreed only to exploratory surgery, or to conservative surgery such as removal of a fibroid or an ovarian cyst. Virtually all hysterectomies are performed without the information required for informed consent.
Hysterectomized women want you to understand that your good questions may be responded to with untruths or outright lies. They share with you their most private, intimate losses caused by the removal of their female organs. They want you to know that it could be you, that your good questions and research may not protect you from maltreatment. There is no treatment which is able to restore, replace or compensate for the functions of the missing organs.
Please share your fight to keep your female organs. Women desperately want and need to hear from others who prevailed, who remained intact, and to know that she is not the only one determined to keep her female organs!
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Labels: adenomyosis, alternatives, cancer, consequences, endometriosis, fibroids, HERS Foundation, HPV, hyperplasia, hysterectomy, Ms Magazine blog, ovaries, sex, support, uterus
posted by HERS Foundation @ 10:44 PM
206 Comments
206 Comments:
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May 19, 2015 at 7:19 PM ,
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January 29, 2017 at 12:24 AM ,
Linda said...
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January 29, 2017 at 5:04 PM ,
HERS Foundation said...
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February 16, 2017 at 10:33 AM ,
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February 16, 2017 at 11:44 AM ,
HERS Foundation said...
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January 23, 2018 at 1:35 PM ,
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 206 of 206
My GYN Specialist is Atypical! He is totally against any move toward a partial or compete hysterectomy.
Having been diagnosed with a cystocele, a slightly prolapsed uterus and a moderate rectocele. I
was sent to this atypical Doctor!
I'd thought for sure if he simply removed my uterus and pulled my bladder up, this would "fix all my problems." Actually, he sent
me back home for two months! He gave me written instructions to think over the pros and cons of the options.
Living on my own I do the my own housekeeping, grocery shopping and mowing the lawn. My past time enjoyments come in the form of creating and maintaining a few simple flower gardens. He wants
me to continue with those same activities though with more awareness on how each affects my abdominal and pelvic muscles.
So, having read this HERS article and the effects of any kind of hysterectomy, I feel ready to return to my Doctor.
Even with the more simple surgery he's going to do, weeks if not months of recuperation will be required. Mainly, he does not want my normal activities to put a strain on the sutures. I agree with him and will do my best to adjust those activities to accommodate his wishes and my sutures! I'm sure things will go great since I'm going the less involved route and not the more radical one.
66 years old. Had Burch procedure (bladder suspension) 25 years ago. Lasted about 15 years, then leaking and urgency returned Presently have pelvic organ prolapse: rectocele (protrusion into vagina - feels like when my I was delivering my babies and they said they could see the baby's head - ouch!) Urogyn I saw last week said my uterus has dropped some also. They tried to fit me for a pessary but because the back of my vaginal wall has been pulled forward due to the Burch procedure all the pessarys shot back out! (Wish my babies had come out that easy - had forceps delivery and was cut vagina to anus because of the forceps - horrible). Both of those things increase ones chance of prolapse I am told. Now I find out my vaginal muscles on one side have no strength as the forceps probably ripped them, (adding to my pelvic weakness?). Anyway, Dr. wants to do robotic surgery to put everything "back in" but said remove the uterus. After all I have read here, I don't want to remove it. Has anyone here had this type of (rectocele) repair done but left the uterus? Does the repair work if the uterus remains and if so, how long? I am horrified (feeling like I just want to go buy a gun and end it all) right now. Please respond. Thank you.
Linda, It is good to hear the Burch procedure worked for about 15 years. Sorry it is no longer working. What did the gynecologist say when you told him you are not going to undergo a hysterectomy and that you want your uterus resuspended and repair of the rectocele?
Have you consulted with more than one urogynecologist? One way that has been productive in finding a doctor who has the skills that you need is to start with the medical school closest to you. Go the medical schools website, go to the link for departments, and click on the relevant links: urogynecology, reconstructive medicine, gynecology or women's health. Then click on faculty. It will give you the bios for the faculty in each department. The bios will tell you if they specialize in hysterectomy, fibroids, reconstructive surgery, etc.
When you find someone, interview them. When you walk into their office, put your hand out, shake hands, and introduce yourself. Tell her or him that you are there for an evaluation and that you are not going to have a hysterectomy. When you fill out their health history form, and it asks who referred you, write Nora W. Coffey at the HERS Foundation. Even if I did not refer you, it if fine with me if you say I did. It helps when gynecologists know that someone who is public and outspoken is paying attention to what they tell you. It helps to get better treatment for women.
Mine has caused me hell since the age of 12, in a week it's coming out and I couldn't be happier. I spent 8 years begging for a procedure that you all claim is rampant and done for no good reason....
Have you been diagnosed with a condition? What are your symptoms? Before you go ahead with a manor irreversible surgery, please go to the HERS Homepage at www.hersfoundation.org and click on the "Female Anatomy" link. After you watch the video, which is about what changes in a woman's body when her female organs are removed, then go the "Adverse Effects Data" and read what 1,000 women report about their experience with hysterectomy.
You can also email HERS at hers@hersfoundation.org or call 610-667-7757 to schedule a telephone appointment to speak with a counselor.
I have never had children and have always had very heavy periods, lasting more than a week, but in my late forties they got heavier (great big clots) and lasted longer (sometimes 16 days of heavy bleeding). I attended my doctor and she found that I was severely anaemic, put me on a course of iron tablets and made an appointment for me to go for tests at a local maternity hospital. I received a leaflet from the maternity hospital explaining how I should prepare for the series of tests which would take a whole day, and explaining the risks. I decided not to go for the tests on that occasion because some of the tests seemed invasive (they would pump fluid into my womb)and carried a risk of infection. When I cancelled my appointment, a nurse from the clinic called me numerous times, putting pressure on me to attend; in the end, I told her to f--- off; it was my body, I reminded her. More than a year later, I had changed doctor (for totally unrelated personal, family reasons) and noticed that I had a lump in my lower abdomen. He sent me for a scan and the scan showed that I had several large fibroids on stalks and several large cysts twisting around my ovaries. The doctor who performed the scan, and my own family doctor, told me they were definitely NOT cancerous and could be left alone, but my doctor made an appointment with a gynaecologist so he could explain the options. When I arrived for my gynae appointment, a different gynae turned up and she offered me just one "solution": uterine artery embolization. She explained it in very simplistic terms (the procedure would cut off the blood supply to the artery). I assumed it meant that air would be pumped into a vein and didn't think of asking her how they would embolize my artery (only later did I read on the internet that it would involve releasing plastic balls into my bloodstream). Nevertheless, I was very concerned about the effects of cutting off blood supply to a major artery. I also asked her what would happen to the fibroids when they died inside me - would they rot away inside my body? She said a specialist would explain everything (I thought that was her job). She made an appointment for me with a specialist to "go through all the options". I looked up the specialist and discovered that he specialised in UAE. I decided at this point to cancel my appointment. I asked my own family doctor was there an alternative. He said that the only definite cure for fibroids was hysterectomy - but that they would shrink anyway after menopause and were harmless. His only concern was my anaemia. He recommended I take double doses of iron tablets when my periods are particularly heavy, and wait it out (I am 50). I took his advice, which suited my own cautious approach, and, while my periods are still very heavy, they are not lasting as long (in recent months they have only lasted nine days, and only two of those days are extremely heavy). My tummy swells up like a football just before my period, unless I manage my diet very carefully (avoid salt, eat almonds and sprinkle sage on everything, drink mint tea...). I hope this reassures some people and I hope I can share some positive news after the menopause, which I am so looking forward to...It can't come soon enough for me.
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