Due to have a hysterectomy but am scared to death after viewing a video about side effects!

Empower yourself! Join the building movement to compel doctor's to provide HERS video "Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs" to every woman who is told she needs a hysterectomy, at least 48 hour prior to the surgery.

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 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? Where will you be?  

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!  

I am Nora W. Coffey, the president of the Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services Foundation. I respect every woman's right to make the decision about hysterectomy and castration, and to not be judged for what she feels is right for her. This blog has been a wonderful opportunity for all of the readers to learn about how damaging hysterectomy is, and I applaud the courage of every woman who stepped forward to report their very personal, very private experiences with hysterectomy. It doesn't feel very good for any woman to say "Hysterectomy destroyed my sex life, I'm dead in bed". But because they want to be sure that other women understand the truth about the surgery, they've generously shared their tragic, but alarming common experiences. Loss of sexual feeling is but one of the myriad of common problems women experience after hysterectomy, but it is the one most women relate to, and the simple anatomical fact is uterine contractions that occur during orgasm will not be physically possible if the uterus is removed.

Anon, posted 2:29am, many women, like myself, do research prior to the surgery. Like the majority of women, I agreed only to exploratory surgery, and removal of my uterus and ovaries only if cancer was confirmed by frozen section during the exploratory surgery. I was married to a lawyer, and when he read the consent form he recommended that I not sign it because it was not clear that my uterus and ovaries would not be removed unless cancer was found. We delayed my surgery by two hours while a new consent form was written that reflected specifically the terms under which I agreed to surgery. It made no difference. I was hysterectomized and castrated, and I did not have cancer. The frozen section revealed a large but benign ovarian cyst. The Surgical Report showed that the gynecologist, Robert Giuntolli, removed the cyst entirely, then he removed my normal uterus and ovaries. The extensive steps I took to protect myself did not help me. I counsel a lawyer from California who added ten pages to her consent form, all of which was ignore, the gynecologist hysterectomized and castrated her. The onus of responsibility sits squarely on the shoulders of the doctor who removes the female organs from women in direct contravention to verbal and written consent. But a woman should not have to be able to do her own research to not be abused by a doctor. A woman who doesn't speak the language, or is retarded, or in what she is led to believe is an emergency situation, should be treated appropriately, she not be abused by a doctor, and in any and all circumstances women should be informed of the consequences of hysterectomy and female castration.

I am the one that said we should put the responsibility where it belongs (on the criminal gynecologists), but if ALL women were armed with the truth, they would run the other way too. Most people are so brainwashed with propaganda that has been instilled in the public that it's difficult to make them understand the truth. I never trusted doctors either and refused to consent to a hysterectomy but woke up hysterectomized and castrated anyway. I am far from stupid, or dumb or even slow. I said NO multiple times, yet I woke up that way anyway, and guess what, there's no law against it! If you read the H Word, the same thing has happened to many women. This is a criminal act regardless of how it happens. These doctors know full well they are harming women and they know there are alternatives, but they continue to decieve women into hysterectomy/castration operations. It is hard for people to believe that doctors are lying to them on such a large scale and getting away with it. I don't think the women are stupid as much as they are brainwashed, and trusting of doctors. What gynecologists are doing to women is unthinkable, and that's why it's so hard to get across to the general public. It is frustrating.....and some women seem stupid after you tell them the truth and they go and have it done anyway. Maybe some are stupid, and maybe others are just so brainwashed that the truth can't get through.

I think many of you women have learnt the hard way and I am very sorry for you. Luckily for me I had done a lot of research when my doctor recommended a hysterectomy. I was prepared for anything. I had heard of a lot of the scare tactics used. I am the anon poster who had placenta previa percreta. Anyway what does the doctor say when you say are not afraid of dying? That is what I said to him. I told him I was happy for him to take a risk and not perform a hysterectomy, and if I died that was OK. He couldn't really keep pushing me after a comment like that so I got my way. So don't let them scare you.

I was the anon who called women stupid. Sorry I don't mean it but I am SO frustrated. I mean the OP has had all these impassioned pleas not to have the surgery and she still isn't quite convinced! I suppose I was lucky, my parents are very cynical people and they taught me not to trust doctors.

When you call women stupid because they accepted their doctor's advice, you miss the fact that they are acting like criminals instead of doctors. Many gynecologists scare women into this surgery while they lie and deceive them. Many women have no idea that they will wake up hysterectomized because they are told that it's an exploratory surgery, or that they will just remove an ovarian cyst. Quite often women are told they have cancer and they will die without the surgery, and even when no cancer is found, they patient is hysterectomized and castrated regardless. Instead of attacking the victims, let's put the responsibility where it belongs. The authorities should be doing a sting operation on gynecologists and stopping this horrific crime. Blaming the women would be like blaming a child that was raped by a Priest. You wouldn't think of asking the child why he is so stupid to let the Priest do that, and you shouldn't call women stupid who have been victimized by gynecologists.

You said why are women so stupid? Why do women trust doctors? Well I thought the doctors are to do what is best for the patient! In the constitution it says that your own body is your right. You have a right to do whatever you want with your body but no one else has that right. So I believe this is a moral issue. The definition of a doctor is to explain to the patient what is wrong with there body, but do the doctor do that? No. So when a women trust the doctor to do what is best for them the doctors don’t do what is right. So how can women be so stupid? It is the doctor who violates there morels and the constitution. Don’t doctors take an oath to do no harm? If the doctors take an oath and don’t abide by that oath are they liars? They put money before the health of women. No matter how informed you are the doctor lies to the patient for money. How do we fix the morals of these doctors? Why are women the victims and not men? Why aren’t the men standing up for the women? The men should be just as angry as the women for the wrong that have been done to them? People in general have lost there guts to fight for what is wrong. May I ask you if you are in this fight to inform women of the wrong that is being done? Help women stop being victims? Are you telling the men in your life to stand up for the women in there lives? Are you making a difference? Being on this blog makes me think you are.

Why are women so stupid? No man would believe it for a second that removing their sex organs would improve sex.So why do women? They are too trusting. Most men I know even refuse to have vasectomies. They don't want anybody going anywhere near their organs with a knife. Does any man diagnosed with prostate cancer facing surgery ever get told by their doctor we'll take your testicles too just in case? Of course not! Wake up women!