CONGRESSWOMAN MALONEY TO DELIVER KEYNOTE ADDRESS

CONGRESSWOMAN MALONEY TO DELIVER KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Momentum Builds For Hysterectomy Informed Consent Legislation

What is so important about HERS Hysterectomy Conference on April 24th, 2010 and a screening of "un becoming" April 23rd, 2010 in New York City that a couple is driving from Florida and sleeping in a tent because they can’t afford a hotel room;  a woman who is unemployed and on disability is sharing a ride with a co-worker and driving cross country; and a woman living in rural England is traveling 3,346 miles to America with her husband?

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY) will deliver the Keynote Address at the HERS Foundation’s Twenty-Eighth Hysterectomy Conference, Saturday April 24th at the Hilton New York in Manhattan. Maloney is a tireless advocate for women’s rights, and she has pledged to do what is needed to ensure that women are given the information about the consequences of hysterectomy that is required for informed consent.  

State Representative Bruce Borders (IN) is a fearless fighter for Hysterectomy Video Informed Consent. Rep. Borders voiced his outrage when Indiana legislators chose to hear testimony about puppy mills over the most important human rights issue to ever come before them. He challenged fellow legislators that they cared more about their pets than their own wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters until the hearing on Hysterectomy Informed Consent was reinstated.  

Dr. Mitchell Levine, a leading medical expert will provide information every woman needs to know about diagnostic studies to evaluate symptoms, alternatives in treatment, and coping with the consequences of hysterectomy. Robert E. Myers, a senior trial attorney, will talk about medical malpractice issues. A panel of women who have undergone the surgery will share information about the impact of hysterectomy on their lives. Panel moderator, HERS president, Nora W. Coffey, will discuss the functional and anatomic changes responsible for the loss of sexuality, the role of the uterus and ovaries in maintaining normal endocrine function and living with hysterectomy-caused physical, family, professional and social problems.  

Everyone knows a woman who is silently suffering from the damaging effects of hysterectomy. As Tawanda Queen said in her testimony before the Health Committee in Indiana about life after hysterectomy, “I reduced my life down to the bare minimum in an attempt to continue working…and to give the appearance of normalcy...what I realized after my experience with informed consent for hysterectomy is that I had no business making any decisions concerning fibroids without having knowledge of my anatomy or an understanding of fibroids.”  

Join the growing number of people going to the conference to tell Congresswoman Maloney and Rep. Borders that they are with HERS and with them 100% in support of changing the Hysterectomy Informed Consent Law NOW!

New study shows link between female castration and lung cancer

Ovary Removal May Play a

Role in Lung Cancer

A new Canadian study reports that castration (removal of the female gonads, the ovaries) almost doubles a younger woman's risk for developing lung cancer. "It's possible that vulnerability to lung cancer is caused by early and sudden decrease in estrogen levels or potentially long-term use of hormone replacement therapy, and further research is needed to explore these hypotheses." said study co-author Jack Siemiatycki, a professor at the University of Montreal's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine.

The report was published online in the International Journal of Cancer in May 2009. It is based on a study of 999 patients from hospitals in Montreal including 422 women with lung cancer. "A major strength of this study was the detailed smoking information which we obtained from all study participants," said study co-author Anita Koushik. "This is important because of the role of smoking in lung cancer and because smokers generally have lower estrogen levels than non-smokers."

"Although smoking is the dominant cause of lung cancer, we know other factors can play an important role in enhancing the impact of tobacco carcinogens." Koushik added "This research suggests that, in women, hormonal factors may play such a role."

________________

A note from Nora W. Coffey

This important discovery should alert every woman and man to the fact that removal of the female organs creates a higher risk of life threatening health problems including but not limited to heart disease, stroke, dementia and lung cancer. Although not considered a "health" or life threatening problem, the loss of sexual feeling and loss of vitality associated with sexual energy are serious adverse effects of hysterectomy and/or castration. There are many more permanent consequences that have either not been discovered, or if known, they have been denied or not reported.

The ovary option

There has been a media blitz surrounding recent discussion of the pros and cons of surgical removal of the ovaries during hysterectomy (see Cochrane article below). But the most important issue has yet to be addressed: the uterus should rarely be removed in the first place.

The article below perpetuates a dangerous myth through the subliminal message that if your ovaries are left intact you’ll be fine if only your uterus is removed. Those who are unaware of the aftermath of hysterectomy, with or without castration, can join more than 400,000 others who have watched the HERS
12-minute video by clicking here: “Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs.”

If the analysis was a sincere effort to provide women with the information they need to make informed decisions about whether or not to allow a doctor to remove their ovaries, the article would have used the word castration, which conveys an immediate understanding of the gravity of their decision. The ovaries are the female gonads, the same as the testicles are the male gonads. The medically correct term for removal of the gonads is castration.

In the HERS Foundation’s ongoing study “Adverse Effects Data,” the experiences of hysterectomized women whose ovaries are left intact are strikingly similar to the women who are also castrated at the time of the surgery. Part of the reason for similar responses with or without castration is that in hysterectomized women whose ovaries aren’t removed, about 35-40% of the time the ovaries cease to function after hysterectomy, resulting in a de facto castration.

This information is public knowledge and has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals for more than a century, so neither journalists nor doctors who hold themselves out as experts in gynecology should get it wrong.

The response to these articles would be far different if the headlines read, “Should women be castrated during removal of other sex organs?”

Removing ovaries during hysterectomy: effects remain unknown
During hysterectomy operations, surgeons often remove a woman’s ovaries as well as her uterus. Cochrane Researchers now say there is no evidence that removing the ovaries provides any additional benefit and warn surgeons to consider the procedure carefully.

“Until more reliable research is available, removal of the ovaries at the time of hysterectomy should be approached with caution,” says lead researcher, Dr. Leonardo Orozco of the OBGYN Women’s Hospital San José in Costa Rica.

Of those women who undergo hysterectomies aged 40 or above, around half also have their ovaries removed. This amounts to more than 300,000 women a year in the US alone. The reason most commonly given for carrying out an oophorectomy at the same time is that it prevents ovarian cancer. However the ovaries produce not only estrogen, but also important hormones such as androgens that may have important clinical effects which have yet to be identified.

The researchers say there is little evidence to support the idea that removing the ovaries during a hysterectomy provides an overall health benefit. They identified only one controlled trial, involving 362 women. This compared hysterectomies with oophorectomies to hysterectomies without oophorectomies. Although this trial showed a very slight positive effect on psychological well-being when oophorectomies were performed, the team say much more data is required before any conclusions can be drawn.

“There could be a real benefit or harm associated with oophorectomy, but it has not been identified, more research of higher methodological quality is needed.” says Dr. Orozco.

Orozco LJ, Salazar A, Clarke J, Tristan M. Hysterectomy versus hysterectomy plus oophorectomy for premenopausal women. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD005638. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005638.pub2. Cochrane Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group.

Hysterectomy Myths vs Facts

Female Anatomy Exposed:

If the female sex organs were visible like the male sex organs,
would they still be removed from 622,000 women each year?

Myth: “Only men have gonads.”

FACT: A woman’s gonads are her ovaries. Removal of the ovaries is castration, and the aftereffects are to women what the aftereffects of removal of the testicles are to men.

Myth: “Sex will be better than ever after hysterectomy.”

FACT: Removal of the uterus causes the loss of uterine orgasm, one of the many irreversible consequences of hysterectomy.

Myth: “After the surgery you’ll feel like a million bucks!”

FACT: The most common problems women report after hysterectomy include loss of sexual feeling, loss of vitality, bone/joint/muscle pain, fatigue, and personality change.

Myth: “Doctors don’t perform as many hysterectomies as they used to.”

FACT: Less than 2% of all hysterectomies are life-saving. Most hysterectomies are performed for benign conditions, not medical problems. The rate of cancer in the female sex organs and the male sex organs is almost identical. The rate of male sex organ removal is statistically insignificant, and yet in the last decade an average of 622,000 hysterectomies and 454,000 female castrations were performed each year in the U.S. That’s more than one every minute of every hour of every day. There are 22 million women alive today in America whose sex organs have been removed.

Myth: Doctors don’t have enough time to provide information about female anatomy and the functions of the female organs before they tell women to sign hysterectomy consent forms.

FACT: It takes just a few seconds for doctors to hand women HERS’ 12-minute “Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs” DVD, available at www.hersfoundation.org/anatomy.

HERS’ 12-minute female anatomy video makes the female organs visible. It fills the information gap and can prevent about 610,000 unnecessary hysterectomies each year and save more than $17B+/year in rising healthcare costs.

Then sign the Petition to compel doctors to provide the information in this video to every woman before she is told to sign a Hysterectomy Consent Form.

What you can do!

ALERT!

So many have asked, “What can I do to help?”

The answer to this question has never been so simple, and the need for help has never been so urgent.

Visit www.hersfoundation.org today to SIGN THE PETITION mandating that HERS’ DVD “Female Anatomy: The Functions of the Female Organs” be shown to every woman who is told she needs pelvic surgery. Please do it now, and dedicate one full day to make sure everyone you know signs it.

Contact HERS for a sample email to send to everyone on your email list or any email list you can get your hands on. Make follow-up calls to make sure your friends and family sign the petition. Post the petition on listservs, online chat rooms, and blogs. Ask HERS about sponsoring an ad in your local newspaper. Make your voice heard, and help HERS end unconsented hysterectomy for all time!

Send everyone you know to www.hersfoundation.org. Urge them to watch HERS’ DVD “Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs” and to sign the petition. Do all that you can to make your state the first one to pass laws to compel doctors to provide accurate information that is every woman’s right to know.

The Language of Hysterectomy

The language of Hysterectomy has a vocabulary most of us are unfamiliar with. To understand the recommendation of doctors to women requires translation from the Language of Medicine to the Language of Hysterectomy.

The easiest way to learn the vocabulary of a foreign language is to begin with a Glossary, a definition of the commonly used words in the language.


GLOSSARY

cas.trate (kas-trate) – removal of gonads, the ovaries or testicles

cor.pus (corp-us) – body of the uterus

crime – An act considered morally wrong. A shameful, unwise, or regrettable act.

fi.broid (fi broyd) – benign growth of muscle and connective tissue that grow until menopause, when they slowly and gradually shrink to a negligible size, becoming small and calcified. The average size of the uterus including fibroids in the late thirties to early forties is a ten to twelve week pregnancy size (about 11cm in the largest dimension), in the middle forties fourteen to sixteen weeks is average (about 15cm in the largest dimension), and in the late forties to early fifties eighteen to twenty weeks is average about 19cm in the largest dimension. Fibroids have two rapid growth spurts that are natural, predictable, and not a cause for alarm, the first in the late thirties to early forties, the second when the hormone changes associated with the beginning of menopause occur, then they slowly and gradually shrink to a negligible size. Estrogens and progesterone stimulate fibroid growth. Not a disease, they are part of the genetic blueprint

fraud (frahd) – the crime of obtaining money or some other benefit by deliberate deception

fun.dus (fun-dus) – the upper rounded extremity of the uterus above the openings of the uterine (fallopian) tubes

GNP – Gross National Product

go.nad (go-nad) – ovary or testis

hys.ter.ec.to.my (his-ter-e`ktoe-me) - removal of the uterus; complete removal of the corpus and cervix; disassembling of the structural integrity of the pelvis; removal of a hormone producing sex organ that supports the bladder and the bowel
abdominal – incision in the abdominal wall, uterus pulled out of the body through the vagina or the abdomen
laparoscopic assisted vaginal – razor edged cylinders pushed into the pelvis into which scopes and cutting devices are inserted to sever ligaments, nerves and blood supply to the uterus which is pulled out of the vagina or the uterus is morcellated (cut into small pieces) and pulled bit by bit through the navel
radical – complete removal of the uterus, cervix, upper vagina, and parametrium
subtotal (partial, supracervical) – removal of the fundus of the uterus, leaving the cervical stump
vaginal – uterus pulled out through the vagina without incising the wall of the abdomen. SYN colpohysterectomy, vaginohysterectomy

iat.ro.gen.ic (I-at-row-jenik) – resulting from the activity of physicians, any adverse condition in a patient occurring as the result of treatment by a physician or surgeon

informed consent – agreement to undergo an operation or medical treatment after being fully informed of and having understood the risks and adverse effects involved

lap.a.ros.co.py (lap-a-rossko-pee) – after incision into the navel and insertion of a trocar (cylinder with a razor sharp edge that is pushed into the navel), the abdomen is inflated with gas, the scope inserted into the abdomen and pelvis via the trocar

my.o.mec.to.my (mi-o-mek-toe-me) – surgical removal of fibroids leaving the uterus intact

mu.ti.la.tion (mu-ti-lashun) – an act, the process, or the result of inflicting serious injury on a person or part of somebody by removing or destroying essential parts of the body

NPO – nil per os, nothing by mouth

ooph.o.rec.to.my (oof-or-e`kto-me) - castration, removal of both ovaries; unilateral, removal of one ovary

pedunculated (pa-dunk-u-lated) – a vascularized (blood supply) stalk

sym.bi.o.sis (simbi-osis) – A close association not always of mutual benefit

TAH/BSO – total abdominal hysterectomy is surgical removal of the uterus and cervix and bilateral 

                       salpingo-oophorectomy is surgical removal of the ovaries, the female gonads, which 

                       is castration

uter.us (u-ter-us) – a hormone producing sex and reproductive organ supporting the bladder and the bowel

Can you answer these questions?

Can you guess the answers to these questions?

____________


True or False?


☐ Castration, neutering and removal of both ovaries are
the same.

☐ Sex life is better after hysterectomy.

☐ Death from heart disease is more likely in hysterectomized
women than in normal women.

☐ Hysterectomy has no effect on men’s sex lives.
____________



Hysterectomy: exactly what is it?

During the operation called hysterectomy the uterus is removed
from a woman’s body and its functions are permanently lost.

During a hysterectomy it is a common and unjustified practice for surgeons
to remove normal ovaries and fallopian tubes in surgery called
bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (also called ovariectomy or castration).

Neither hysterectomy nor oophorectomy is constructive or
restorative surgery. Both hysterectomy and
oophorectomy are, by medical definition, destructive procedures.
There is no treatment which is able to restore, replace or compensate for
the functions of the missing organs.

The immediate and life-long complications induced by these
operations have been widely documented in the scientific and
medical literature since their introduction into the surgical
armamentarium, and are well known in medical circles.



What women say about life after hysterectomy

The adverse effects most frequently reported to
the HERS Foundation:

• Loss of sexuality: loss of desire, loss of physical responsiveness and pleasure, and painful intercourse.

• Pain in bones and joints: “locking” of joints so that some women are unable to stand, walk, or lift without assistance; some women require braces, walkers, wheelchairs; some are bedridden.

• Backache: severe, persistent, disabling.

• Extreme dryness of skin, eyes, genital tissues; vaginal atrophy.

• Rapid, abnormal aging of tissues affecting appearance, skin and general health.

• Angina: chest pain and pressure may occur spontaneously, with exertion, or with exposure to cold.

• Cardiovascular disease.

• Chronic urinary problems: stress incontinence, feeling of urgency or irritability, frequent night voiding, infections, fistulae (surgically-caused abnormal openings into the vagina from the urinary tract).

• Internal pain: in pelvis, groin, vagina or side.

• Emotional dislocation: profound depression, crying, emotional blunting; loss of maternal feeling and of emotional connection and response to loved ones.

• Chronic debilitating fatigue which is not relieved by resting: loss of stamina and of ability to resume the pattern of life which preceded surgery, i.e., diminished ability to run a household, return to work, maintain familiy and social connections.

• Persistance of the condition for which surgery was performed: endometriosis, cancer, pelvic infection, urinary disorders, etc.

• Insomnia; panic attacks; heart palpitations; impaired memory and concentration; weight gain; intolerable hot flashes.


Next: What you need to know about hysterectomy

Hysterectomy and the Loss of Uterine Orgasm

Most women are taught little about the functions of the female organs beyond iinformation about menstruation and pregnancy. The uterus and ovaries are the female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organs. The female organs are internal and their functions are not visible. Most women and men know more about the functions of male reproductive sex organs than female female reproductive sex organs because the organs are external and visible.

One of the common myths perpetuated by doctors that has become folklore is that the female organs are only needed by women who want to have children and that after they complete their family they no longer need these organs. Nothing could be further from the truth. The uterus is a hormone responsive reproductive sex organ that supports the bladder and the bowel. It functions all of a woman's life. Many women are sexually active and experience uterine orgasm into their 80's.

The ovaries are the female gonads. They produce hormones all of a woman's life. The pre-menopausal ovary produce more estrogens than androgens, and the post-menpausal ovary produces more androgens and less estrogens. Removal of the ovaries is castration.

The uterus provides support to the bladder and the bowel. When a hysterectomy is performed the support to the bladder is compromised, and the bowel drifts down to take up the space where the uterus had been. The vagina is shortened, made into a closed pocket. Because the uterus separates the bladder from the bowel, when the uterus is removed the bowel drifts down and takes up the space where the uterus had been. When there is stool in the bowel it presses against the bladder and down into the top of the vagina. This would not have been possible with the uterus intact.

In a HERS Foundation survey 99.7% of women reported that the doctor who performed the surgery did not inform them of the consequences or they were lied to when they asked if they would experience any changes. Most often doctors tell women "You'll be better than ever" and "Sex will be the same or better".

Because doctors are not informing women of the adverse effects of hysterectomy the HERS Foundation has launched a campaign to compel every doctor to provide HERS short new educational video "Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs" to every woman before she is asked to sign a Hysterectomy Consent Form.

SIGN THE PETITON at www.ipetitions.com/petition/saynotilyouknow or by visit www.hersfoundation.org and click on "Petition". It's every woman's right to know.