Many/most physicians won’t authorize an elective hysterectomy prior to a certain age (hell if I know the standard) due to fears of a patient changing her mind later on, or that the risks may outweigh the benefits. Also, some women are concerned that removal of a healthy-but-disgruntled uterus may lead to unforeseen complications down the road, or don’t see the sense in undergoing major surgery to remove an essentially healthy organ. Then there are the costs involved, and the worries about insurance covering a non-essential operation.
Because, see, women are baby machines, and any woman who has not already popped out a baby or three can’t possibly know for sure that they don’t want to have a parasite growing in them for nine months sometime in the future. So if any woman like that should say so, it’s obviously indicative of some form of mental illness, and therefore they couldn’t legally consent to a medical procedure.
Or in mildly less-cynical words, what Ferret Herder said. FWIW, what I’ve always heard as the generally-accepted standard is ‘you’ve already had a child, or are around 35 years old’. But I have no reputable cite for that, so I could just be making it up.
You should have seen the fight that my gyn and i had to go through to do a tubal ligation on a 21 year old. Christ on a pogo stick, I had just had 2 miscarriages that almost killed me, what the fuck more did they want form me?! The first hospital refused because I was single and didnt have a husband to co-authorize the procedure. As fucking IF I needed someone elses permission to not reproduce.
Are you serious? A hospital said you needed another person’s permission for a medical procedure? How is that not illegal?
When I got my tubal, over 20 years ago, yeah, the hospital wanted my husband’s permission to do the surgery. What really made steam come out of my ears, though, is that HE could have gotten a vasectomy without even notifying me.
Slypork, I see that in your open letter to your repro apparatus, you completely disregarded Mr. Prostate, who does so much of the behind-the-scenes dirty work for the onscreen cast.
You realize, he can make you pay for that slight…
And yes, it’s standard practice for the surgeons to avoid performing hysterectomies on youthful females if at all possible. There’s also IIRC a factor there of a backlash against a perception of excessive non-essential gynecological surgeries at one time.
Rodney Carrington has this one covered with the hit song Dear Penis
Animated video here http://www.19.5degs.com/element/608.php
I am seriously flabbergasted here. I had a vasectomy in '81 sans wife and naturally, wifely permission. Other than a conversation with the surgeon* about how if only smart people fail to reproduce, the average smarts will decrease over time, nobody said boo.
Of course, my being 31 may have stopped any thoughts about my not knowing what I wanted in life, but yeesh, what a thing to have thrown in your face.
*It was while he was doing the procedure so it was more conversation than trying to counsel me.
Yeah, you really can’t understand what its like to be a woman unless you try and have your tubes tied or buy a car. Then you start to understand…
Or be a woman contractor in a strange lumberyard. Gets tiresome.
As to my uterus, we’ve gotten along well, she’s certainly kept up her end of the bargain.
keeping in mind that this was the same hospital that I had a 5 month miscarriage and a 7 month stillbirth in. This was what he was declaring a medically required sterilization because a third run at trying would probably kill me if it went far enough for the BP to explode my poor little blood vessels and make my head go kaboom [or however eclampsia does one in … ]
I would like to give a moment of contemplative appreciation to my now recently departed uterus. She gave service above and beyond the call of duty during the almost nine months my only son was being formed within her; no matter what the ultrasounds said about complete placenta previa, she never bled once when it really would have been a matter of life or death for me and my son. She also healed well after the C-section. Unfortunately, after that she gained weight (multiple fibroids) and began to bleed profusely and continuously. Her significantly increased size also caused constant horrible back pain and bladder problems. It was with a certain amount of regret that I made the decision to sever our relationship permanently.
Uterus, thank you for doing your monthly redecorating when you did, or more precisely, ending it when you did, since I have to move tomorrow.
Dear Uterus,
Thank you for playing nice most of the time. Sure, sometimes you get cranky. Sometimes you bring Intestines into it. But on the whole, we survive your ups and downs quite well. Should I ever decide to employ you for your intended use, I hope our working relationship continues in this vein.
Sincerely,
me
Dear Uterus:
You’ve done fine, cradled the two Ivykids quite nicely, hardly any PMS in the past 25 odd years or so, but a little warning that you were forming a committee to discuss shutting down production would have spared me some angst a couple of months back. A visit to the doctor and some lab tests have confirmed that I’m starting perimenopause. So, I guess my craziness had a reason, but it would have been nice to know that.
Oh, and left breast? I know I’ve been lax on my breast self-exams, and for that I sincerely apologize. I am getting that lump removed a week from Thursday…no hard feelings, okay? Let’s make sure that thing is benign, pretty please?
Sincerely,
ivylass
This is one of the more interesting threads I’ve ever read. My turn!
Dear Uterus:
You’ve had a bit of a break the last 19 months, but it’s time to start preparing again. Starting in June, there’s a very good chance you could contain what will be one of the two most precious things in my life for about 9 months. Take good care of it, and if you will do everything humanly possible to arrange this baby so that he/she will get their head through my pelvis, I will do everything I can to assure that no one will be slicing into you for a second time. Is it a deal?
I’ve been taking pretty good care of you for a long time, and I’m sorry about the false alarm last summer (yes, the IUD is 99.9% effective, but I’m aware that I fell into the small category that managed to get positive pregnancy tests with it inserted - it only lasted a few days, though, so it shouldn’t have been too taxing), so hopefully, you’ll work with me on this. Once we get the next baby out, I promise, you get a long, relaxing vacation and will never have to carry another heavy baby.
Thanks for the help.
Sincerely,
Your owner, who really didn’t want anyone to slice into her, either.
ETA: Ivylass - lots of good thoughts for a benign lump!
Dear placenta,
Thank you for keeping my baby alive. That said, get off my cervix, right now. I put a lot of time and effort into finding a physician who will support a VBAC, not to mention putting myself through a lot of emotional work to prepare for it, and now you want to get into the picture and screw it up. It’s entirely your fault that I’m stuck in the hospital for six more weeks, and I don’t like it one bit.
And while you’re at it, lay off interfering with my insulin. I do not appreciate taking an ever-increasing dose because you need your sugar fix. I am eating what the doctors tell me to whether I like it or not, and you damn well can, too.
And just to be clear, in six weeks - you are getting out of there, m’kay? There will be none of this taking the uterus with you crap. I don’t care how friendly the two of you have gotten, all good things must come to an end.
Sincerely,
Me
Dear ENugent,
My sympathies (having been there, done that on the stubborn placenta that chooses the exactly wrong place to roost) - hope it works out for you. Bed rest/hospital rest just made me feel cooped up, not rested.
Sincerely,
Serious Lark
Dear Uterus,
thanks for the kid - she’s seriously the best thing either of us has produced.
I know I haven’t given you much to do over the years, despite your constant reminders of when you were willing and when it was too late. The injections seem to have calmed you down by several orders of magnitude and I hope you’re as relieved about that as I am.
Thanks ovaries, you certainly picked the best bits of me to pass on to the kid. It’s been worth your pointed and impossible to ignore complaints every twenty-eight days for the last thirty years, just to have ended up with her.
Vagina? Just - thanks.
Then there’s always pills …
Oh, wait, I just remembered! Women don’t want answers or solutions, they just want to be listened to, sympathized with and hugged.
Poor baby!
And: I’m sorry. I don’t know why, I don’t have to know why. I’m a male. I’m sorry.