Hysterectomy Facts

Source: Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services www.hersfoundation.com. HERS is the only independent, international organization dedicated to the issue of hysterectomy and advocates for fully informed medical choices by women.

FACT: A woman's vagina is shortened, scarred and dislocated by hysterectomy.

FACT: Hysterectomy's damage is life-long. Among its most common consequences, in addition to operative injuries are:

• heart disease
• osteoporosis
• bone, joint and muscle pain and immobility
• loss of sexual desire, arousal, and sensation
• painful intercourse, vaginal damage
• displacement of bladder, bowel, and other pelvic organs
• urinary tract infections, frequency, incontinence
• chronic constipation and digestive disorders
• profound fatigue
• chronic exhaustion
• altered body odor
• loss of short-term memory
• blunting of emotions, personality changes, despondency, irritability, anger, reclusiveness and suicidal thinking

FACT: No drugs or other treatments can replace ovarian or uterine hormones or functions. The loss is permanent.

FACT: The medical term for the removal of the ovaries is castration. Most women are castrated at hysterectomy.

FACT: The uterus and ovaries function throughout life in women who have not been hysterectomized or castrated.

FACT: Twice as many women in their 20's and 30's are hysterectomized as women in their 50's and 60's.

FACT: 98% of women HERS has referred to board-certified gynecologists after being told they needed hysterectomies, discovered that, in fact, they did not need hysterectomies.

FACT: Gynecologists, hospitals and drug companies make more than 8 billion dollars a year from the business of hysterectomy and castration.

FACT: Women experience a loss of physical sexual sensation as a result of hysterectomy.