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.
I am a victim of an unnecessary hysterectomy. The bastard that castrated me didn't even explain to me what would happen to me after a hysterectomy. Nothing, not even a pamphlet, nothing. When I ended up in the psych ward–after a melt down-(I went into sudden surgical menapause ) they treated me like a drug addict and nuttball. How humiliating for me. After the hysterectomy–which he painted such a beautiful pic of having a hysterectomy, he said I will feel soo much better, no more bleeding, etc. and of course while I was on morphine and in such debilitating pain, the pic he painted looked soo good. But–after the unnecessary hysterectomy when I would ask questions about it, he said we will talk about it later when you are off this morphine. But–He explained the beautiful pic of hysterectomy while I was on morphine, but all of a sudden he can't talk to me about my hysterectomy while on morphine. I know of 3 more victims of his shitty care. He has even been sued before, but that poor woman that sued him, she lost because THE JURY LOVED HIM. Can you believe that? How unfair for that poor woman. Then I found an e-mail on the internet about a woman that had a bad experience with him also. He was going to perform an unnecessary hysterectomy on her too. But she was lucky and bailed on him and went to another doc because Dr. Collins here wanted to do an unnecessary hysterectomy on her and she is in her late 20's. Her biggest dream was wanting to be a mother! He almost ruined her life! Anyway, I wanted to expose this doctor becasue he is destroying women's lives, and gets away with it. This town is the headquarters for conocophillips, about 38,000 people. He hangs with all the docs, lawyers, judges, etc. and this county is small. I had a lawyer for my case and won–but my lawyer was scared to file because he said he has been sued before, and since this town loves him. There is NO way I would win. So sad for me. I lost my 21 yr career ( excellent pay & insurance ), marriage is hangin by a hair, finances in shambles and health is poor. All because of his neglect!!! He needs stopped!
Renee, thank you for sharing your experience.
You raise some issues that need clarification. First, fibroids are often not the cause of heavy menstrual bleeding. The only time that you know fibroids are the cause of heavy menstrual flooding is when the bleeding is accompanied by large blood clots, which are often at least half dollar size, and sometimes as big as your fist. Passing such large blood clots through the cervix can be very painful. It’s relatively easy to determine if you have this type of fibroid, called submucosal (in the embedded in the lnside lining of the uterus), by having a pelvic and transvaginal ultrasound. The ultrasound should be performed in the Radiology Department of a hospital, or in a free standing imaging center, prefrrably one connected with a medical center. Ultrasounds performed in gynecologist’s offices are not read by a radiologist, the person with the expertise to provide a full, detailed written report of their findings.
A submucosal fibroid that is 4cm or less can be shelled out with a hysteroscope, a long scope that’s inserted into the vagina, then into the cervix, and into the uterus. A tool is attached to the end of the scope which the gynecologist uses to chip away at the fibroid until only the shell remains. If the submucosal fibroid is larger than 4cm it cannot be shelled out hysteroscopically, a myomectomy would be need. A horizontal incision is made made above the pubic bone, and the fibroid is cut out of the uterus, and the defect in the uterine wall is carefully sutured in layers. After shelling out of a small submucosal fibroid or myomectomy, menstrual bleeding returns to a normal flow without large blood clots.
Prometrium is progesterone, which like estrogens, cause fibroids to grow, and puts you at increased of breast cancer and blood clots that may cause a stroke. The most effective and safe ways to treat an endocrine imbalance is with acupuncture.
With regard to John Lee, his book advocates the yam cream, sold on his website, with the claim that the progestin effect would shrink fibroids. In fact the opposite is true. If any pharmaceutical or natural progesterone product has a progestin effect, you are at risk for the same effects as any progesterone made by pharmaceutical companies.
I did read Dr. Mercola’s comments, and appreciate his reference to the HERS Foundation’s work to educate the public about the alternatives to and consequences of hysterectomy and female castration.
HERS wishes you good health in the New Year, and we hope that this information about prometrium will help you choose a safer treatment of your hormone imbalance.
Ms. Nora Coffey,
I would like to share my story with you in hopes it will help other women and ask for you to research further into what I experienced.
I started having heavy and irregular periods in my late 40’s. I went to see a gynecologist and was told I needed a hysterectomy. I followed up with a second gynecologist who stated I have other options and gave me Provera. The periods became regular but my blood pressure shot up to over 175. I was told to quit taking Provera and the second doctor also recommended a hysterectomy. This doctor also told me bio-identical hormones were no different from the synthetic hormones like Provera. I requested a myomectomy but the doctor said the fibroids would come back and my uterus would be a “piece of cheese”.
The heavy and irregular bleeding resumed. I found another doctor, one that is a OB/GYN/Endricologist and requested a myomectomy. This doctor ran blood tests to test my hormones and found I had a hormone imbalance. He said he could remove the fibroids with a myomectomy but it would not cure the bleeding because the hormone inbalance was causing my bleeding problem and not the fibroids. He also did a hysteroscope and found many fibroids but because they were on the outside wall of the uterus, they were not causing any problems. The doctor put me on prometrium and very quickly, my periods became regular and my blood pressure did not rise and my sleeping because stable again. My blood pressure is in the range of 108/64 now and I take the prometrium for 10 days per month.
Ms. Coffey, I admire the work you are doing. However, when I read the comments about a myomectomy being a solution to fibroids, I can’t help but think of my situation where a myomectomy was not a cure because my fibroids were not causing my bleeding. I share this with you in hopes you will do your own research into bio-identical hormones like prometrium vs. synthetic hormones and look into educating women that fibroids are not always causing problems – it can be something as simple as a hormone imbalance like it was for me. In light of that, I would like to share two resources with you below:
Dr. Mercola from Chicago recently posted a lot of information on his website about the issue of too many hysterectomies being performed and the issue of synthetic vs. bio-identical hormones. His website is http://www.mercola.com. He tells his story of working for a drug company just out of medical school that sold synthetic hormones and the way they adversely hurt women’s health and the cruel method against horses that is used to obtain horses urine to put into their drugs. He explains when women start peri-menopause, their progesterone wanes and they are left with excess estrogen which causes excessive and irregular bleeding, which can cause a build-up of the lining in the uterus which can lead to cancer. A simple dose of a plant-based natural progesterone can put a woman’s hormones back in balance and eliminate the bleeding and put women’s hormones back in balance naturally. There is so m uch on his website about hysterectomies and hormones. I hope you will have a chance to read it.
Another good resource that explains all this are the books by Dr. John Lee. One book is “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Peri-menopause”.
Ms. Coffey, I did not know what was happening to my body when I started having irregular and heavy bleeding. I sought out every book I could find and sought out a fine doctor that is not only an OB/GYN, but is also an endriconologist and that is where I found the care I needed and avoided a hysterectomy.
I will be happy to talk with you one on one on the phone if you want to validate I am a woman writing this to you. I am not pushing any products off – I am just so happy to have avoided a hysterectomy and found a better life by feeling better with a simple solution.
Thank you again for all your hard work in this area and I hope we will see changes in the near future with how women’s health issues are medically treated.
Best Regards,
Renee
all i can say is these dirty wicked butchers parading as doctors deserve to have their balls cut off.
i didnt realize there were so may people frustrated with gyns until i saw this blogsite today.
i always suffered with ultra heavy menstrual bleeding. The doctor found I had large fibroids and he said they had to take out my uterus immediately. That it would grow and put pressure on the liver etc, like I was such a dumb idiot to believe him
I stopped going to doctors for the time being. I am living with the bleeding. But I know people who had their uterus removed by these lying butchers. I think they deserve to be jailed for their crimes, really. Its time to sue them. They tell dreadful lies to make fortunes on poor women.
testing
Ok I’m not even talking about Fibroids this time I’m talking about removal of the womb in connection for cancer this is often also another ‘over treatment’ see below my experience today 20th November 2007 UK:-
I had 1B1 cervical cancer and a successful cone biopsy meaning all the cancer was gone.
Then met with the (male) oncologist who suggested that I now had a hysterectomy and my ovaries removed it was not explained that cancer of the ovary has nothing to do with cancer of the cervix or the level of danger that I was in and to cut a long story short the rush with which a hospital bed was booked led me to think I may be in some grave danger. ( He was probably gong by the text book I will add)But thank god for my gut feeling I didn’t like the blasé way the doctor was explaining my own treatment to me without telling me my level of risk and leaving me to make a decision about my own body.
Lukily I didn’t go ahead a few months later I met a lady doctor at the same Oncology clinic. I really lost my temper with the here an even said the ‘F’ word and finally got the important information that I needed to make a decision which was …’what level of extra risk am I at if I don’t have a hysterectomy after an early stage of cancer? a straight answer is all I wanted from someone qualified to
give me information so I finally got it after saying the ‘F’ word three times… I am at about an extra 5% risk for cancer if I don’t have
a hysterectomy , the woman even admitted that they are worried if people will sue them if the cancer comes back and that is why they are so cautious.
Jesus imagine waking up after a major operation and finding out there was a 95% chance you didn’t need it and no one told you!
What a relief decision made I would definitely not want hysterectomy for this level of risk…..I am rather attached to my womb am 48 and lukily outgoing I so worry for those that take doctors orders without question.
I have wasted nearly a year worrying and the simple risk level information would have saved me sleepless nights and as for the medical professions worry about being sued why not give me a paper to sign saying I’m aware of the risks.
Good luck
I take HERS Foundation Brocures, and printed petitions with me everywhere I go. I gave a one to a women in a parking lot the other day, she began to read it right there, I could tell as I walked away, that she did not stop reading until she read the whole printed page. Women want this information and deserve this, life saving, information.
I would have never signed a consent form for a hysterectomy after I knew the operation was not necessary and would leave me with a life-long set of serious health problems.
There is so much we can do. One way is to get even what these so-called doctors has done to us. You have to get motivated somehow. Something terrible has happened to us, and yes the effects of this barbaric surgery is permanent. Get healthy, whether it is getting more exercise or getting on vitamins. Keep your spirits up! I can remember crying as I was exercising. After almost 20 years, I still cry alot. Keep yourself in tact by looking good. Is it hard, you bet it is. Start by writing articles in your local newpapers. Let the doctors know what they have done to us. Speak out even though you will have women say it is the best thing that ever happened to them (which we know is a lie). Write to your State Senators urging them to sign the form to pass a law. Call the Hers Foundation and get a list of women that will call and talk to you to help you. Work with the Hers Foundation. They need help!
I was completely castrated at age 63. Nothing wrong with me..I never knew what hisdirectomy was doc never mentioned it, falsified forms, out of his ambulatory clinic. I had no prior medical history was and still is suffering grief from loss of husband of 42 years.he and his eife saw it and tricked mee into surgery but never mentioned hysterectomy with castration. He made it so another doctor can see inside me. I have had over a dozen doctor visits, not him,found out he spent 2 years in an all mens Pakistan college. This brutal attack on my body caused great harm, physically and mentally. Indiana doctor. Now i suffer double trama, depression, The actice,strong woman i was is gone. Attempted suicide,surely will again. Attorneys don’t care because im noy age bearing. I deserve to be healthy and strong like before
Lost all interest in anything . I like nothing. Ill never be happy,never move on. Laws need to change. The forms were falsified with Adobe. I never signed that. I only hear the word twice,once i was a child. I knew nothing about my own body except i was healthy. When i heard him say to anesthesiologist the reason he is doing this was scar tissue, i fought that gas mask.my belly was cut from one side to the other. I suffer great pain daily, bowels and bladder injured. Im in trouble no attorney will help me. He comitted medical fraud. He butchered me in less than 35 minures. Shaved me like his beard.