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.