I just found out, for the first time, all the long term risks of a hysterectomy and I’m fucking anxious and can’t sleep.
I had a partial laparoscopic hysterectomy because of endometriosis. They took my cervix too without telling or asking in advance.
I wasn’t told the risks, before or after, the surgery. I had to find out through fucking Tumblr. That’s NOT informed consent - I wasn’t informed!!
And I don’t know how to mitigate the risks. I still have my ovaries, but that won’t prevent a possible fucking prolapse. That won’t stop my organs from moving down, or my pelvis from widening due to torn ligaments.
I just.. I’m so angry and scared. I’m 24. I have many years ahead of me, most likely. And I have no idea what that will look like, 5, 10, or 20 years down the road. I’m fine, right now, but who knows how long that’ll last?
I’m so upset. Modern medicine failed me yet again. Why isn’t anyone told these things??
I should have been told. Other women should have been told. But no, they don’t give a fuck about us and it really shows, too often.
I’d really appreciate some advice from women who have had the same thing done to them, and are older. Or just some kind words. I’m so anxious right now. My future was uncertain enough without all this extra bullshit.
Left: JoAnn Trejo, PhD, is professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and assistant vice chancellor for UC San Diego Health Sciences Faculty Affairs. Right: Elizabeth Winzeler, PhD, is professor in the Division of Host Microbe Systems and Therapeutics in the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and adjunct professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego.
Leaders in cell biology and anti-malarial drug development respectively, JoAnn Trejo and Elizabeth Winzeler were recognized by their peers with one of the highest honors in health and medicine.
Trejo is known for discovering how cellular responses are regulated by molecules known as G protein-coupled receptors, particularly in the context of vascular inflammation and cancer. Her findings have advanced the fundamental knowledge of cell biology and helped identify new targets for drug development. Trejo’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including a recent NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award.
Winzeler is known for her early contribution to the field of functional genomics, where she worked primarily in the model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Concerned about global health disparities and the alarming rise in the number of worldwide malaria cases in the early 2000s, she shifted her research focus to malaria, beginning with functional genomics and then moving to drug discovery.
On This Day in Herstory, November 11th 1865, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, an American abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, doctor, and the first US Army female surgeon, was the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor. To date, she is the only woman to have been given the military decoration; 1 woman and 3,521 men have received this award.
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was born November 26th 1832 in Oswego, New York; she and her siblings were raised in a very progressive manner for the time. She was very well educated, and from a young age she would read her father’s medical texts; this interest lead to her enrollment and graduation from Syracuse Medical College, she was the only woman in her class. She married a fellow medical student, Albert Miller, just before she turned 23. Her wedding defied tradition, she wore a short skirt with trousers underneath, would not include the word “obey” in her vows, and she retained her last name. The couple set up a medical practice in Rome, New York, but had little success, as female doctors were not trusted at the time. She and Miller later divorced due to his infidelity.
In 1861 with the start of the American Civil War, Walker volunteered as a nurse, working as the Patent Office Hospital in Washington, D.C.; she then began to work in the battlefields, in tent hospitals. In fall 1863 she was appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland. Unfortunately, not too long after, in April 1864 she was captured and imprisoned by the Confederate Army; and was released in August of that year. Shortly after her release she received a contract as an “acting assistant surgeon,” and began supervision a hospital for women prisoners and then an orphanage. She retired from her government service in June 1865, and on November 11th of that year she was awarded the Medal of Honor for Meritorious, in recognition of her courageous war efforts. Today, 153 years later, Walker remains the only female Medal of Honor recipient.
After the Civil War, Walker lectured on issues such as dress reforms and women’s suffrage. She became infamous for her objections to a traditional female wardrobe. She wrote in 1871, “The greatest sorrows from which women suffer to-day are those physical, moral, and mental ones, that are caused by their unhygienic manner of dressing!” She strongly disagreed with long skirts and petticoats, not just for their discomfort and the wearer’s limited mobility, but also for their collection and spreading of dust and dirt. By 1861 her regular ensemble was trousers with suspenders under a knee-length dress with a tight waist and a full skirt. She believed that women’s clothes should “protect the person, and allow freedom of motion and circulation, and not make the wearer a slave to it.” In February 1870 Walker was arrested in New Orleans and mocked by the police because she was dressed “like a man.” The arresting officer twisted her arm and asked her is she had ever had sex with a man. She was released from custody when she was recognized at Police Court.
Regrettably, in 1917 the U.S. government changed the criteria for the Medal of Honor and withdrew Walker’s medal, though she continued to wear it. She died two years later on February 21st 1919. 60 years after her death in 1977, Walker’s Medal of Honor was posthumously restored.
June Clark (b. 1941) is a Professor Emeritus of Community Nursing at Swansea University in Wales. She was the first professor of nursing at the university.
She has had an important rule in developing nursing practices and standards, not only in the UK, but in developing countries such as Kazakhstan and Romania. She is the deputy president of the Welsh Nursing Academy.
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) was an American scientist and the recipient of the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Her research was crucial to understanding and demonstrating many fundamental ideas in the field of genetics.
Among other ideas, she proved that genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on and off. Her research during the 60s and 70s, undertaken mainly on maize crops, proved extremely valuable, especially in agriculture.
Dr. Walker was the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army, serving during the Civil War.
She was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1865 by President Johnson, and remains the only woman to have ever won it, to this date. Interestingly, this high honor was awarded to her (and even had a bill passed in order to make her eligible) in order to recognize her service to the country…while making sure that she didn’t receive an army commission in retirement.
Indeed, she made less as a pensioner than the widows of most officers did, but she saw the greater honor of her Medal, wearing it every day until her death in 1917.
Walker also campaigned as an abolitionist (prior to the war), prohibitionist, and an advocate for dress reform, citing women’s clothing as “immodest and unwieldy”. She was arrested several times in the late 1800s for “impersonating a man”, because of her trousers and top hat.
