Petition to Stop Unconsented, Unwarranted and Unwanted Hysterectomy
Sign the Petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saynotilyouknow/
Join thousands of women and men and sign the Petition to make sure that every woman and girl who is told she needs surgery to remove female sex organs is provided with the HERS Foundation’s educational DVD “Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs.” The purpose of the DVD is to inform women that the adverse effects of removing reproductive sex organs is anything but routine, and yet no other part of the human anatomy is removed as frequently as
the uterus and ovaries. Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus, a hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ with lifelong functions that are essential to a woman’s health and wellbeing. Oophorectomy is the surgical removal of the ovaries, the female gonads, which is performed on an average of 75% of women at the time of hysterectomy. The medically correct term for removal of the gonads is castration. There are 22 million living women in this country whose reproductive sex organs have been removed. A statistically insignifi cant number of men have their sex organs removed, although the rate of cancer in the male and female organs is nearly identical. In a HERS survey of women’s experiences with hysterectomy, 99.7% report that doctors neglected to inform women or lied to them about the well-documented adverse effects of the surgery. There simply is no informed consent until basic information about female anatomy is provided to women. Therefore,
almost all surgeries to remove the uterus and ovaries are unconsented.
Typically women are asked to sign a consent form that lists the procedure to be performed and the most common risks of any major surgery. The proposed surgery is written-in on the consent form as “exploratory surgery and possible
TAH BSO” (total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy), which means that the uterus and ovaries may be removed during the surgery. Many women are told that they are only consenting to exploratory surgery, but the word “possible” gives doctors permission to remove the reproductive sex organs and creates a legal loophole that protects doctors and hospitals from legal claims. It is not customary to remove organs during other types of exploratory surgery, and yet it
is common during exploratory surgery of the female organs. So women and girls are specifi cally at risk. Furthermore, women are often told to sign the consent form after they have been sedated just minutes before
the surgery.
Clearly, the consent form process itself does not work and is deeply fl awed. No woman should be asked to consider consenting to exploratory surgery or the removal of her uterus or ovaries until she is provided with information about female anatomy and the functions of her reproductive sex organs.
No information? No consent!
Sign the Petition to enact laws compelling every doctor to provide HERS’ new educational DVD “Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs” to every woman and girl who is told she needs pelvic surgery, including exploratory surgery,
hysterectomy, or oophorectomy.
Who would deny a woman the right to know?
Watch the DVD at www.hersfoundation.org, click on "Female Anatomy"
HERS Foundation
Phone 610-667-7757
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