# Doper (Born) Women: Do You Still Have Your Uterus? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 20, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465 "2012-04-20T23:28:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/41 "2012-04-21T03:23:21Z")
Might “womb” be more understood by your patients than “uterus”? ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/42 "2012-04-21T03:43:07Z")
I still have all the lady parts I was born with. I was diagnosed with fibroids a few years back, but with a couple years of birth control pills, and age, they don’t seem to be a big problem anymore. I opted to try that route first, before deciding on surgery, and it seems to have worked. Now, if I can just get the menopause thing finished up, it’ll all be good. I’m 56, by the way. Oh, and yes, I remember the times I’ve had surgery. Well, the time. I’m down half a thyroid. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/43 "2012-04-21T03:43:19Z")
Yeah, but it doesn’t work. I haven’t had a period in a couple years (PCOS). I got it back when I went on birth control for a while, but as an obese smoker who isn’t having sex anyway, it seemed rather pointless to continue in the face of the clotting risk. Besides, I honestly prefer not having to deal with the bloody (hah) mess anymore. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/44 "2012-04-21T03:46:45Z")
I like that you specified “inside your body”. I still have all my original parts, except for my gall bladder and my wisdom teeth, and I remember both removals very clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/45 "2012-04-21T04:11:32Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I’m trying to think how I’ve been phrasing my questions. First, I’ve already asked them how many times they were hospitalized, and when, and what for, and they haven’t mentioned a hysterectomy. Then I ask them if they still get their monthly\*, and we laugh a little about me asking 70 and 80 year olds that question, but there’s a reason for that…(Note: if you’re an 80 year old woman who is still menstruating, please get that checked out.) > > “Have you ever had an operation on your female system\*?” I place my hand on my lower abdomen. “Have you had a hysterectomy? Did they take out your uterus?” > > I really try to be as colloquial as possible, rephrase things with different words and hope not to come off as patronizing. > > I’d certainly welcome any input or rephrasing people think might be more useful. I wonder if women are sometimes confused because some medical professionals refer to removing the uterus only as a “partial hysterectomy,” while removal of uterus, tubes and ovaries is called a “total hysterectomy.” The women might think there is actually an operation that removes only part of the uterus. It wouldn’t surprise me, especially in older women who question their memory of past events. My mother, who is a retired health care worker and pretty sharp in her 80s, knows she had a hysterectomy but can’t recall if they left in the ovaries. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/46 "2012-04-21T05:01:45Z")
1. Still have it. I am not particularly attached to it; I have never, ever wanted to be pregnant, give birth, or raise children, so if anyone knows an easy way for me to get it scooped out and donated to someone who wants to use it, please let me know. I’ve recently moved to a much more reproductively-liberal area of the country, so if I have my druthers it will not be in working order all that much longer. I can’t fathom how anyone could not know if they had theirs or not. It’s not like they can just get up by themselves and wander out into the night, while you stay sound asleep. When a doctor once had to ask me if I still had my tonsils, I could tell her that I did, and you’re way more likely to have had those out back when you were too young to remember it. Have you asked these people if they are also unsure of the whereabouts of their spleens, or perhaps one or two of their kidneys? ETA: Also, I’m pretty sure I’m a Doper (born) woman. I’m a cisgendered girl, obviously, and I started in on the Straight Dope books when I was quite a young’un. If the first wasn’t published before I was born, it was certainly before I was in school; I was reading them for the information long before I could fully appreciate the Master’s fine wit. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/47 "2012-04-21T05:56:27Z")
> [@](#): > > I do find it pretty odd that someone would not remember having a hysterectomy. Surgeries suck. It’s not like you don’t notice that it’s happening. I don’t mind the surgeries themselves. It’s the bits before and the bits afterwards that I remember. Now, I did wake up a bit when they were working on my knee, but someone gave me another dose of sleepy stuff. I also woke up (in a different operation) when they were working on my nipple, just as the doctor was putting in the final stitches. The anesthesiologist said that he didn’t want to give me more drugs, if I wasn’t in pain, because I’d be done in about five minutes. So I didn’t get more drugs then. I didn’t feel any pain in either instance, just some pressure. I remember the RECOVERY period for both surgeries quite vividly. And the second night after my hysterectomy was quite possibly the worst night of my life. Fortunately my sister had warned me about this, so I knew that it would get better, if I could just live through it. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/48 "2012-04-21T06:07:45Z")
I have _a_ uterus, but it’s shed at least once a month for the past 30 years, and 2-3 times a month for the last six months, so…I _think_ it’s still in there, but am kinda doubtful it’s the same one I started out with all those years ago. I am pretty sure it’s trying to escape, though. Wish I could just kick it out! ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/49 "2012-04-21T06:11:26Z")
41 years old, no longer have it. I had a hysterectomy at age 39 after suffering from large uterine fibroids for years. Somehow I managed to get pregnant at age 30, in spite of the fibroids, and managed to carry my daughter to term. I had my uterus, tubes and cervix removed, and kept my ovaries. I KNOW I had a hysterectomy because I remember being in the hospital and the doctor mentioning how enlarged my uterus was when it was removed. Plus the large scar running down my belly reminds me of it every day (had to have the old-fashioned vertical cut due to this was how my C-section was done, because my daughter was in the breech position and there was a fibroid blocking the, er, regular way out). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/50 "2012-04-21T06:31:07Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Ok, sure. Today I met the sixth and seventh women I’ve come across in my (not yet a year old) nursing career who didn’t know if they still have their uterus. Which I find really weird. If you want additional data, this is the first time I hear of a woman who doesn’t know which parts, if any, have been taken out. I know women who’ve had unexpected hysterectomies or whatever you call it when an ovary is taken out, but who know it happened: “ok, we left your appendix in, it was fine - turns out the problem was a cyst in your ovary the size of a tangerine. Any kids you have from now on are from the left side and your periods should be less painful”. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/51 "2012-04-21T10:04:54Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Ok, sure. Today I met the sixth and seventh women I’ve come across in my (not yet a year old) nursing career who didn’t know if they still have their uterus. Which I find really weird. > > I mean, I understand that some people still have them and some people don’t. What I don’t understand is how grown, fully functioning, non-demented, non-crazy women don’t \*know \*if they’ve had a hysterectomy or not. It just seems kind of a big thing not to know, you know? I understand that not everyone is the biology/medicine nerd I am, but to not know whether or not you’ve had major surgery to remove a fairly significant organ…really? > > Anyway, I just wondered if I was the strange one, and perhaps there are lots of women out there who don’t know. Since I have a group of women here who like to click survey buttons, I thought I’d find out! 😃 > > (And yes, I meant born women as opposed to transgendered women. I don’t expect a woman born male to have a uterus, but I do expect Doper pedants to call me out for carelessness if I’m not specific!) Wow. Just…wow. You know “unknown unknowns”? This is a really cool, simple one: I never knew this was “a thing” that I didn’t know. And it’s really strange. It’s difficult to properly understand what women mean when they say they don’t know. First I though that if they say they don’t know it means they have their uterus, because you’d notice the surgery and doctors would give you loads of information. But then I thought about how I \* feel\* my uterus (though I guess not everyone does) so not knowing if it’s there might mean you don’t feel it anymore? Has it ever happened that someone said they didn’t know, and it turned out they had had a hysterectomy? Or only that they didn’t know and they hadn’t had it out, implying that they misunderstood the question? ---
**Author:** ![DeepLiquid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deepliquid/32/14893_2.png) [@DeepLiquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepLiquid)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/52 "2012-04-21T12:17:21Z")
> [@StuffLikeThatThere](#): > > My sister-in-law, who is also my dentist, made fun of me for not knowing which of my teeth had fillings in them. I confess I don’t really pay attention to which tooth they’re working on. I’m just trying to breathe through the horse needle and the drilling noise. > > But yes. I know which body parts have been actually removed. (Thyroid, appendix, lymph nodes, sad little torn ACL, one tooth, giant cell tumor. If that last one counts, and not in that order.) I do find it pretty odd that someone would not remember having a hysterectomy. Surgeries suck. It’s not like you don’t notice that it’s happening. I’ve had ten or twelve surgeries now, if I think long and hard I can remember most of them. The first one was in 1973, things from that long ago are a bit fuzzy in my memory. When people ask about them I usually say “I’ve had lots of orthopedic surgeries and all optional organs removed, except my appendix”. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/53 "2012-04-21T12:57:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Might “womb” be more understood by your patients than “uterus”? Possibly. I’ll have to try that. Thanks for the suggestion. > [@gracer](#): > > It’s difficult to properly understand what women mean when they say they don’t know. > \ > Has it ever happened that someone said they didn’t know, and it turned out they had had a hysterectomy? Or only that they didn’t know and they hadn’t had it out, implying that they misunderstood the question? This is the real mystery. I don’t think for the same reason for all patients. For example, one of the women yesterday I can sort of understand her ignorance - she had some sort of “cancer” (I put cancer in quotes because lots of people use the term for non-malignant things the doctor removes) in her “belly” that was removed. She also called it a “mass”. The words cyst, fibroid and tumor didn’t ring a bell for her. She was losing a lot of weight and felt tired all the time, and then she had surgery. Her scar is a doozy, beginning about two inches below her sternum and extending to the pubic bone, midline. So it’s obvious that she was opened up and something was removed and now she feels better and is putting weight back on. So your guess is as good as mine. Sure, it could have been a cancerous tumor. It could have been a uterus full of fibroids or one covered with cysts. It could have been a part of the intestine, or the lower end of the esophagus. If it was an emergency situation, or exploratory, it could have been something on or in her stomach, spleen, pancreas, or even liver or gall bladder (although a controlled gall bladder removal doesn’t need a cut that big.) If she had been younger and the protagonist of a Victorian novel, it could have been an infant! The frustrating thing is that I often never find out. This particular one, I will, because her “cancer” surgery was only four years ago, and I can probably get the records from the hospital about it. Since I’ll be working with her for at least 2 months, it’s worth tracking down, to assuage my curiosity, sure, but also to know what sort of “cancer” she had and what I should be teaching her about prevention or awareness should it come back. But often there’s no particular incident where women think they may have lost their uterus, they’re just uncertain. If I’m taking a health history on a patient that’s just passing through, or if they can’t remember the name of their old doctor or old hospital, then there’s not really anything I can do to find out. (This is why a central database with your health records on it would be so very valuable to healthcare providers, but we’re still a long way from having that!) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/54 "2012-04-21T13:35:34Z")
You know, with women of certain origins, they really could be unaware if they were removed or not - I just read a [news article](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17612550) online about Uzbeki doctors having a quota of 4 sterilizations a month, women being given hysterectomies while in for another purpose. Many people are raised to just accept what doctors do to them as the ultimate health authority. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/55 "2012-04-21T14:15:48Z")
I think a lot of people are intimidated by doctors, and will agree to things without a very clear idea of what they’re agreeing to. I can see someone who’s not very educated being talked down to a little by the medical staff (especially if these surgeries may have taken place in the 50s or 60s when things were different for “urban Black” women) and agreeing to a surgery that they don’t really understand, because the doctor says they need it. Add into that an ignorance of the medical field and terminology, and I can see some women being unsure of exactly what they have left after they saw their doctor for “lady troubles” back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/56 "2012-04-21T15:37:59Z")
I’ve run into this a few times in my nursing career, too. Some cultures think it is not “nice” or “well-bred” for ladies to know about private parts, even their own! I know it was that way in white Southern communities because several older ladies have told me about it. The funniest one I ran into was when a older lady got tired of my questions and told me “I have everything I came into this world with, except my virginity.” I laughed so hard! ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/57 "2012-04-21T17:19:37Z")
When I read that recent book about Henrietta Lacks, I noted that if she were alive today she’d be about 92. That is not too far away from the age of your patients at the upper end of the scale, and it really struck me while reading that Ms. Lacks was very poorly informed about her medical situation and that it seemed pretty standard for the time and circumstance. The impression I got was that this was typical, it was not a priority for hospitals serving urban blacks at no cost to spend a lot of time on patient education, and for all I know, this might have become part of the culture, not expecting or seeking out information on one’s own. Now, this I don’t have any factual information on, and would be curious to know more, but it’s my understanding that at least until the 1960s, it was not unheard of for a husband to be given his wife’s diagnosis and for HIM to make the decision of how/what/how much to tell her. Given all that craziness, I am surprised but not surprised that some women wouldn’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/58 "2012-04-21T19:29:28Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I know, right? But yes, all of them appear to be mentally intact and stable, with no signs of depression, dementia, confusion or forgetfulness outside the norm for their ages (which range from 43 to 86). This is just a guess, but I wonder if some of them might have a vague idea that the uterus just shrivels up or something once a woman hits menopause. As **Sudden Kestrel** said, some might also be confused about the distinction between a “partial hysterectomy” and a “full hysterectomy”, or even confused about the difference between a tubal ligation and a hysterectomy. I could believe that some of the older women had grown up knowing so little about their reproductive systems that they figured that any woman who couldn’t conceive must not have a womb. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/59 "2012-04-21T20:10:00Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > The impression I got was that this was typical, it was not a priority for hospitals serving urban blacks at no cost to spend a lot of time on patient education, and for all I know, this might have become part of the culture, not expecting or seeking out information on one’s own. > > Now, this I don’t have any factual information on, and would be curious to know more, but it’s my understanding that at least until the 1960s, it was not unheard of for a husband to be given his wife’s diagnosis and for HIM to make the decision of how/what/how much to tell her. > > Given all that craziness, I am surprised but not surprised that some women wouldn’t know. Thank you so much for pointing this out. Yes, I think you’re exactly on target. And worse, I don’t think it’s entirely a thing of the past. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465/60 "2012-04-21T20:33:46Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > But then I thought about how I \* feel\* my uterus (though I guess not everyone does) so not knowing if it’s there might mean you don’t feel it anymore? You know, I have no idea what you mean by this. Feel…how? Like when it’s crampy? Or from the outside like when a doctor is poking at your belly during an exam? I can’t say that I’m ever aware of mine when not in pain, and even then I’m not entirely sure of it’s location in there. I think I have abnormally low awareness of where pain comes from in general, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-born-women-do-you-still-have-your-uterus/619465.md?page=4)