Hysterectomies
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 1:57 pm
This excerpt is from a lengthy 2 part report, Death by Medicine, found on John Mercola's web page.
Since we were discussing women's health and the negative aspects of allopathic gyn care, I thought people
would be interested in this.
tanya
WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEDICINE
Briefly, we will look at the medical iatrogenesis of women in particular. Dr. Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was world-renowned, the most celebrated doctor of his time. He practiced in the Paris hospital La Salpetriere. He became an expert in hysteria diagnosing an average of 10 hysterical women each day, transforming them into . "iatrogenic monsters," turning simple 'neurosis' into hysteria.96 The number of women diagnosed with hysteria and hospitalized rose from one percent in 1841 to 17 percent in 1883.
Hysteria is derived from the Latin "hystera," meaning uterus. Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman stated very clearly in her paper that there is a tradition in U.S. medicine of excessive medical and surgical interventions on women. Only 100 years ago male doctors decided that female psychological imbalance originated in the uterus. When surgery to remove the uterus was perfected it became the "cure" for mental instability, effecting a physical and psychological castration. Dr. Fugh-Berman noted that U.S. doctors eventually disabused themselves of that notion but have continued to treat women very differently than they treat men.97 She cites the following:
a.. Thousands of prophylactic mastectomies are performed annually.
b.. One-third of U.S. women have had a hysterectomy before menopause.
c.. Women are prescribed drugs more frequently than are men.
d.. Women are given potent drugs for disease prevention, which results in disease substitution due to side effects.
e.. Fetal monitoring is unsupported by studies and not recommended by the CDC.98 It confines women to a hospital bed and may result in higher incidence of cesarean section.99
f.. Normal processes such as menopause and childbirth have been heavily medicalized.
g.. Synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does not prevent heart disease or dementia. It does increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and gall bladder attack.100
We would add that as many as one-third of postmenopausal women use HRT.101,102 These numbers are important in light of the much-publicized Women's Health Initiative Study, which was forced to stop before its completion because of a higher death rate in the synthetic estrogen-progestin (HRT) group.103
Cesarean Section
In 1983, 809,000 cesarean sections (21 percent of live births) were performed, making it the most common obstetric and gynecologic (OB/GYN) surgical procedure. The second most common OB/GYN operation was hysterectomy (673,000), and diagnostic dilation and curettage of the uterus (632,000) was third. In 1983, OB/GYN operations represented 23 percent of all surgery completed in this country.104
In 2001, Cesarean section is still the most common OB/GYN surgical procedure. Approximately 4 million births occur annually, with a 24 percent C-Section rate, i.e., 960,000 operations. In the Netherlands only eight percent of babies are delivered by Cesarean section. Assuming human babies are similar in the United States and in the Netherlands, we are performing 640,000 unnecessary C-Sections in the United States with its three to four times higher mortality and 20 times greater morbidity than vaginal delivery.105
The cesarean section rate was only 4.5 percent in the United States in 1965. By 1986 it had climbed to 24.1 percent. The author states that obviously an "uncontrolled pandemic of medically unnecessary cesarean births is occurring."106 VanHam reported a cesarean section postpartum hemorrhage rate of seven percent, a hematoma formation rate of 3.5 percent, a urinary tract infection rate of three percent, and a combined postoperative morbidity rate of 35.7 percent in a high-risk population undergoing cesarean section.107
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Since we were discussing women's health and the negative aspects of allopathic gyn care, I thought people
would be interested in this.
tanya
WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEDICINE
Briefly, we will look at the medical iatrogenesis of women in particular. Dr. Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was world-renowned, the most celebrated doctor of his time. He practiced in the Paris hospital La Salpetriere. He became an expert in hysteria diagnosing an average of 10 hysterical women each day, transforming them into . "iatrogenic monsters," turning simple 'neurosis' into hysteria.96 The number of women diagnosed with hysteria and hospitalized rose from one percent in 1841 to 17 percent in 1883.
Hysteria is derived from the Latin "hystera," meaning uterus. Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman stated very clearly in her paper that there is a tradition in U.S. medicine of excessive medical and surgical interventions on women. Only 100 years ago male doctors decided that female psychological imbalance originated in the uterus. When surgery to remove the uterus was perfected it became the "cure" for mental instability, effecting a physical and psychological castration. Dr. Fugh-Berman noted that U.S. doctors eventually disabused themselves of that notion but have continued to treat women very differently than they treat men.97 She cites the following:
a.. Thousands of prophylactic mastectomies are performed annually.
b.. One-third of U.S. women have had a hysterectomy before menopause.
c.. Women are prescribed drugs more frequently than are men.
d.. Women are given potent drugs for disease prevention, which results in disease substitution due to side effects.
e.. Fetal monitoring is unsupported by studies and not recommended by the CDC.98 It confines women to a hospital bed and may result in higher incidence of cesarean section.99
f.. Normal processes such as menopause and childbirth have been heavily medicalized.
g.. Synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does not prevent heart disease or dementia. It does increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and gall bladder attack.100
We would add that as many as one-third of postmenopausal women use HRT.101,102 These numbers are important in light of the much-publicized Women's Health Initiative Study, which was forced to stop before its completion because of a higher death rate in the synthetic estrogen-progestin (HRT) group.103
Cesarean Section
In 1983, 809,000 cesarean sections (21 percent of live births) were performed, making it the most common obstetric and gynecologic (OB/GYN) surgical procedure. The second most common OB/GYN operation was hysterectomy (673,000), and diagnostic dilation and curettage of the uterus (632,000) was third. In 1983, OB/GYN operations represented 23 percent of all surgery completed in this country.104
In 2001, Cesarean section is still the most common OB/GYN surgical procedure. Approximately 4 million births occur annually, with a 24 percent C-Section rate, i.e., 960,000 operations. In the Netherlands only eight percent of babies are delivered by Cesarean section. Assuming human babies are similar in the United States and in the Netherlands, we are performing 640,000 unnecessary C-Sections in the United States with its three to four times higher mortality and 20 times greater morbidity than vaginal delivery.105
The cesarean section rate was only 4.5 percent in the United States in 1965. By 1986 it had climbed to 24.1 percent. The author states that obviously an "uncontrolled pandemic of medically unnecessary cesarean births is occurring."106 VanHam reported a cesarean section postpartum hemorrhage rate of seven percent, a hematoma formation rate of 3.5 percent, a urinary tract infection rate of three percent, and a combined postoperative morbidity rate of 35.7 percent in a high-risk population undergoing cesarean section.107
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]