Hysterectomy - A Quick Introduction
By: Linda Parkinson-hardman
Up to 40,000 hysterectomy operations are carried out by the NHS on women in the UK every year. It can and does help to ease many gynaecological complaints, including heavy and/or painful periods and endometriosis.
Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the womb (uterus). It is one of the most common of all surgical procedures and can also involve the removal of the fallopian tubes, ovaries, cervix and part of the vagina to cure or help a number of gynaecological complaints. Following this operation you will no longer have periods, you will not be fertile and you will not be able to have any more children.
There are two main ways to perform a hysterectomy. The most common way is to remove the womb through a cut in the lower abdomen. The second, less common, way is to remove only the womb through a cut in the top of the vagina, the top of vagina is then stitched.
The reasons for having a hysterectomy may include heavy bleeding, fibroids, cancer, Endometriosis, prolapse of the womb, pelvic inflammatory disease.
There are many effects of having a hysterectomy and they may be physical, sexual and/or emotional. However, there are also a number of long-term health implications, which may include osteoporosis and heart disease.
If you have your ovaries removed you may be prescribed Hormone Replacement Therapy. As with any long term drug treatment there are implications that should be considered and these may include breast cancer and thrombosis. However, current research seems to indicate it may have beneficial effects on osteoporosis, heart disease, memory loss and of course menopausal symptoms.
Hormone Replacement Therapy comes in various forms, tablets, patches, implants and creams, gels or pessaries. The type you decide to take will be based on a number of factors including the one you are most comfortable using.
If you don’t want to take HRT, you may decide that you would like to try an alternative form of treatment that is not prescribed by doctors, this may include a progesterone cream, nutritional therapy to replace hormones or diet.
What to expect in the first few days after surgery – one patients experience
Day 1
* It is normal during the first 24-36 hours after surgery to feel many aches and pains all over your body. It is usual to experience backache, shoulder pain and a stiff neck as well as abdominal pain. While you have been under the anaesthetic your body will have been handled by several medical personnel and have become quite stiff.
* You may find you are attached to a Patient Controlled Analgesia device, this is usually morphine. This means you will be in control of your own pain medication and you should receive information on this from the ward staff; if you don’t, then ask for it. You cannot give yourself too many pain killers, as there is a built-in timer. So if you feel pain at any time, do not hesitate to press your button, you do not have to wait hours between each dose and it is important you feel as comfortable as possible.
* During your operation, you may well have been catheterised. It means that straight after the operation when you are at your most uncomfortable you do not have to worry about going to a toilet to pass urine; this will be simply passed into a bag at your side and emptied regularly by the nurses. It will be removed after the first 24 hours and is painless.
* Don’t plan any visits, except by those nearest to you. You will be drifting in and out of sleep and will not feel like talking much to anyone
* You will be attached to a saline drip. This is because you will be dehydrated from having nil by mouth and the anaesthetic. Drink plenty of water, you can’t get enough. And the more you drink, the sooner your drip will be ready to come out.
Day 2
* Ask for advice about suitable painkillers for your post-operative pain. I was told to immediately stop taking the strong pain medication that I had been regularly taking for abdominal pain prior to the hysterectomy and switch to a pill for surgical pain. But it can also work the other way round and you may need to take stronger painkillers than before.
* You may have some slight vaginal bleeding; this is normal and should soon clear up.
Day 3
* If you’ve not yet had one, a warm, gentle shower will do you the world of good. Do not be afraid of getting your wound wet but try not to get soap directly onto it. When you have finished, showering, simply pat the wound dry with a towel.
* If you have not yet opened your bowels, ask for a mild and gentle laxative. Once you have opened your bowels you should feel more comfortable. You may also experience slight pain from trapped wind and indigestion due to lack of movement; if so, do not hesitate to ask for something to help with this too.
Day 4
* If it has not been done ask for a blood count. This is a simple and painless exercise. The tip of your finger will be pinpricked and a few drops of blood taken. It can be done on the spot. My count was below 10 and so I needed some iron tablet supplements.
* At some point during your stay in hospital, you may feel low and quite weepy. This is perfectly normal and is nothing to be ashamed of you have been through a very traumatic event.
Day 5
* If all has gone well and depending upon the policy of your hospital, you should be allowed to go home around this time. Make sure you have someone who can come and collect you and carry your bags. You should not lift anything heavy.
Linda is Director of The Hysterectomy Association She is an Information Scientist specialising in health information Linda has written several books, including 101 Handy Hints for a Happy Hysterectomy, The Pocket Guide To Hysterectomy and Losing The Woman Within. You can find more information about hysterectomy on the website: http://www.hysterectomy-association.org.uk
8:06 AM | 0 Comments
The sad story of the hysterical uterus
An anatomical "reality" that persisted in Western medical lore since ancient Greece was that the female uterus becomes displeased and displaced, and wanders through the body, negatively influencing the brain (I kid you not!). "Hysteria" is derived from the Greek word for uterus.
In a fit of fury the female uterus went travelling through the body, causing all manner of emotional disturbances – hence hysteria, hysterical – and hysterectomy.
The mental condition of hysteria afflicted legions of women of all ages throughout the patriarchal centuries, and was considered the most common disease after fever. In menopause, specifically, "the belief was that the failure to menstruate caused the uterus to travel around the body, eventually negatively influencing the brain".(Louis Banner In Full Flower)
The descriptions of hysterical patients painted a terrible caricature of the feminine. Old treatments included bed rest, binding, beating, purging, bloodletting, and, in worse cases, hysterectomy and/or clitoridectomy.
A kinder treatment evolved in the 19th century, when hysteria became a veritable epidemic, especially in the white middle classes. The doctor massaged the genitals until there was a healing convulsion and moist spasms (an orgasm by any other name), which relieved the patient for a while – until the next appointment. Hysteria was considered chronic and incurable, requiring ongoing treatment.
Electric vibrators were developed in the mid 19th century to help the overworked doctors and ease the hysterical women. They were even marketed to women at home for self-treatment, and were advertised in consumer catalogues and magazines. (There were vibrators in the house before vacuum cleaners.) However, by 1930 vibrators had gone underground, and were not openly advertised again until they re-emerged as sex toys in the 1960s. (This is according to Duana R Anderson in The wondering Uterus & A Brief History of the Vibrator)
The treatment of hysteria was taken over by psychology, and Freud pretty much evolved his world-shattering theories based on his work with hysterical (and frigid) women. And, well, we should be grateful for that.
He explained hysteria as the physical and psychological expression of inner psychic conflicts about sexuality. (Psyche turned into soma.) He explored his patients' personal history for clues, practised the talking cure (hugely innovative for its time), and developed psychoanalysis.
In my view, these legions of hysterical women were literally quivering with centuries of misogynist repressions, bursting to break out of the traumatized collective psyche; an epidemic erupting out of the universal unconscious where the goddess of myth lay buried.
In the good doctor's own words, "The character of hysterics shows a degree of sexual repression in excess of the normal quantity, an intensification of resistance against the sexual instinct (which we have already met with in the form of shame, disgust and morality), and what seems like an instinctive aversion on their part to any intellectual consideration of sexual problems.
"This trait … is not uncommonly screened by the existence of a second constitutional character present in hysteria, namely the predominant development of the sexual instinct. Psychoanalysis … reveals the pair of opposites by which it is characterised – exaggerated sexual craving and excessive aversion to sexuality."
Modern psychology succeeded in shifting hysteria from the realm of superstition. You could say it cured the mass hysteria; by 1952, it was officially declared a non-disease.
Freud introduced the concept of libido, the psychic energy expressed through sexuality that lies at the root of every living individual, and drives our desires and impulses. It can be repressed, expressed, controlled, or transmuted. But it exists – a priori!
Psychology helped to make conscious the compulsion of instincts hidden in the unconscious psyche. Basically ordinary people could now understand their behaviours and symptoms as expressions of underlying psychic/psychological conflict. Jung introduced the idea of the collective unconscious, which illuminated the universality of dream images and personal unconscious content.
The hysteric's subjugated sexuality was now the very stuff of the modern age, just waiting for the 1960s to burst out on to the world stage of the post-war baby boomers. The sexual liberation of that period was a huge and abrupt cultural change. Perhaps we forget now just how radical and fundamental it was - this sexual break from the past.
However, before we get too satisfied with this development, we need to ask ourselves why, with hysteria safely unplugged, we now have a virtual epidemic of hysterectomies, now the second most frequent surgery among American women, with caesarean section delivery being first. One in three women in the United States has had a hysterectomy by age 60!
If our hysterical uteruses are no longer travelling through our bodies affecting our brains, why are so many women having them cut out?
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:
©2007 The Hanna G Ruby material. Extracted from Sex, Age & Menopause: a baby boomer’s manifesto. Visit Hanna G Ruby on www.sexageandmenopause.com and blog.hannagruby.com or email hgr@sexageandmenopause.com. "Towards a Soulful Sexuality, a Different Menopause and a “New” Aging through healing your sexual self."
9:44 AM | 0 Comments
