Uterine artery embolization is a relatively non-invasive procedure to stop the blood supply to the existing uterine fibroids in order to eliminate them. It involves a catheter through the artery and lasts for about an hour, but after the procedure, the uterus is intact. The fibroids do not have blood to feed them, so they disappear. But is it really a better solution than the hysterectomy, given that the symptomatic uterine fibroids may return within a year or two, and that with hysterectomy they cannot return because the uterus isn’t there any more?

Here’s a comparative study, with the full name of

Uterine artery embolisation or hysterectomy for the treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids: a cost-utility analysis of the HOPEFUL study

by Wu, O. and Briggs, A.H. and Dutton, S. and Hirst, A. and Maresh, M. and Nicholson, A. and McPherson, K. (2007), and published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 114(11):pp. 1352-1362.

They wanted to see which procedure should be favourized from the standpoint of UK NHS. There were 649 women who underwent UAE (Uterine Artery Embolisation) and were followed for the 8.6 years in average, while there were 459 women with hysterectomy, which were followed for up to 4.6 in average.

Two main measures were the Costs of procedures and complications, and Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) UAE had the lower cost, £2536 versus £3282, small reduction in quality of life (8.203 versus 8.241 QALYs) when compared with hysterectomy. However, when the quality of life associated with the conservation of the uterus was incorporated in the model, UAE was shown to be the dominant strategy—lower costs and greater QALYs.

The result of the study is that simply more women should be allowed to UAE instead of going directly to hysterectomy. This is especially important if the woman wants to preserve her uterus.

The abstract of the Uterine Artery Embolisation or Hysterectomy For the Treatment of Symptomatic Uterine Fibroids study is published by the University of Glasgow.

Technorati Tags: fibroids, Hysterectomy, NHS, quality of life. Glasgow, symptomatic uterine fibroids, UAE, UK NHS, university of Glasgow, Uterine Artery Embolization, Uterine Fibroids

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Here is a recent case in India — I’ll quote from the blog post from the Law and Other Things blog

“…the doctor began by conducting a diagnostic laparoscopy but followed it up immediately thereafter, having obtained additional consent only from the patient’s mother (as the patient was still unconscious), with a second and more elaborate treatment procedure (‘laparotomy’) that resulted in removal of the patient’s uterus and ovaries (hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy). [The patient, upset over this fact, refused to pay upon discharge. The doctor sued for recovery of charges and got a favorable ruling from the National Consumers' Commission. The patient appealed in the SC]. The consent form signed by the patient at the very beginning stated that the patient had been informed that the treatment to be undertaken is ‘diagnostic and therapeutic laparoscopy. Laparotomy may be needed’. The outcome of the case turned on the definition of ‘laparotomy’ – the word simply refers to opening the abdomen; so, in this instance, did it also imply consent to remove organs from the patient’s abdomen after it had been opened (as the doctor argued)? The court’s answer was in the negative and it emphasized that if that was indeed the case, the consent form ought to have read “”diagnostic and operative laparoscopy. Laparotomy, hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy, if needed.”

It is a real life situation that has plagued many women who wanted their gynecological problems solved, and instead, ended up without their reproductive organs to the end of their days.

It really is in the discretion of the surgeon. The patient is unconscious, and may not be able to undergo another major surgery if the surgeon woke her up just in order to ask her whether she would like to have the foci of cancer, for example, preserved…

Now let’s reverse the situation. The consent only gave permission for some surgery and not for any radical surgery at all and let’s suppose that the surgeon visually found out the masses of cancerous tissue all over the uterus and abdomen? Wouldn’t he be neglecting his duty to cure if he just dully noticed that the patient is soon going to die but what the heck, there is no written consent, so let her wake up and then tell her the situation. Would she still be suing him for not operating properly on her?

The moral of the story is — you never know what will happen. And that is why I am always advocating avoiding hysterectomy if possible, not going for it like it’s a picnic… because it is not!

Technorati Tags: cancer, consent, court, Hysterectomy, informed consent, patient, sue, surgeon, surgery

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When you read forums and somebody says they are heading for hysterectomy, almost always one or two participants stands up saying that hysterectomy was the best thing that ever happened to them in their lives! OK, maybe that’s how it was for them, but not everybody has their own little “happy hysterectomy”. The case in point is Christine from Atlanta, let’s quote from this article:

Exactly one week after the hysterectomy, Christine awoke in horrible pain and immediately went to her doctor’s office. When she passed out in his waiting room, an ambulance took her to a hospital.

A CT scan revealed urine was accumulating in her abdomen. Christine says her doctor explained what he thought went wrong: When he was using a cauterizing tool, he must have nicked the ureter, the duct that carries urine from the kidneys to the bladder. “He really owned up to it,” Christine says.

The next day, her doctor implanted a nephrostomy tube, so Christine’s urine could accumulate in a bag outside her body. A week later, she had a third procedure to insert an internal stent to replace the tube and the bag. When that stent caused her pain, doctors removed it in a fourth surgery. Today, Christine is scheduled to have a fifth procedure to fix her ureter, which has become almost completely blocked by scar tissue.

Grant says the complication that caused all these problems — the nicking of a ureter — would most likely be considered a regular complication of the surgery, and not negligence. This means that even though Christine has clearly suffered, she wouldn’t have a case. “Just because you have a bad outcome doesn’t mean you can sue,” he says.

Since she lives in the USA, her relatives wanted her to sue, but it doesn’t seems it is possible — her costs are too small for an attorney to have a profit at court. (That’s what happens when you live in a profit driven justice system.) She is not well, and the money is gone. Being a physician herself, she knows how major surgeris can be dangerous…

Bottom line: avoid hysterectomy if you can.

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The Da Vinci Robot controlled hysterectomy is one step beyond traditional laparoscopy. One of the main problems with open surgeries were incisions, which meant more pain, scarring, loss of blood, longer hospital stays, increased risk of infections, slower recovery and slower return to normal life. Laparoscopy turns that around, but robotic surgery ups the ante even more.

Here is how it is summarized in article Baptist Hospital now offers robot-assisted hysterectomies:

Traditional open-incision hysterectomies generally require 5-to-12-inch incisions, 3-to-4 days of hospitalization and 6-to-8 weeks off work. Dr. Thomas-Doyle reserves those surgeries for more complicated cases. She has long preferred using less-invasive laparoscopic techniques for her hysterectomy patients. With laparoscopy the large open incision is replaced by a handful of button-size cuts — or ports — through which instruments, including a viewing camera, are inserted and manipulated. Patients remain in the hospital for 24 hours and can return to normal activities in about three weeks.

The da Vinci system takes laparoscopy to the next level: robotic surgery. Visualization is greatly improved with da Vinci robotics. With traditional laparoscopy, the surgeon’s movements must be performed in “mirror image” of what she is doing. The three-dimensional, high-definition da Vinci camera corrects this electronically, allowing a more natural view for the surgeon. The viewing field also can be magnified up to 12 times actual size.

Additionally, da Vinci robotics provides surgeons with an incredible degree of precision. The system bypasses human limitations by correcting unintentional tremor and allowing greater flexibility. While both traditional laparoscopy and robotic surgery result in less discomfort and quicker recovery, the exquisite precision provided by the da Vinci system allows more complex cases to be performed less invasively.

Of course, we at this site, want women to avoid hysterectomy in the first place, however, if it must come to that, the da Vinci robotic surgery may be the way to go, if available to you. Here is the link at youTube.com where you can see the procedure in its entirety:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4jX6_Fq6VU

It is over 1 hour long. (Clicking on that link will open a new window, embedding this particular video is forbidden upon request.)

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The following pages on this site, How To Avoid Hysterectomy.com, are about myomectomy:
Myomectomy

Laparoscopic myomectomy

Abdominal myomectomy

Hysteroscopic myomectomy

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Not a day passes that someone will not write about or mention hysterectomy, either in the news or in their blog or wherever.

Low Libido in Women — What To Do About It?

So many women have low libido, a low drive to have sex with their partners. Almost half of the women actually fall into this category and some of the actually want to do something about it. This story, Pills Not Always the Cure for Women Suffering Low Libido, tells us about a case in which testosterone pills actually helped a woman regain her libido, and at the same time, it also states that the low male hormones are far from the only cure.

A typical situation in which sex drive is diminished is after the hysterectomy, you can read an article testosterone for women on this site about it.

Although, as as astrologer, I must add that the quality of your sex drive depends both on your Mars and Venus in the natal chart, as well as on the interplay of these two planets with your partner’s Mars and Venus. (Hint, hint: find a partner with any kind of crossed aspect with your Mars and Venus and you won’t even need artificial hormones!)

Treatments For Menorrhagia Evaluated, UK

Heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia) is a common problem in women. About 5% of women asks their GP about that such bleeding. In previous decades, hysterectomy was the only way to resolve it, but in the meantime, new surgical techniques evolved. Professor Siladitya Bhattacharya of the University of Aberdeen will lead a team of researchers to review the existing evidence about hysterectomy, endometrial ablative techniques (microwave endometrial ablation and thermal balloon ablation), and the Mirena coil. The goal of the study is to establish long term effectiveness of all these methods, and then to create a set of guidelines for doctors to follow in clinical decision making. The estimated publishing time is mid 2010.

Here are the technical details of the proposed study.

New Hysterectomy Offers Faster Recovery

A sugar-coated story of how a woman had increasingly heavy periods and anemia, how her doctor persuaded her to take the uterus out and how she walked home the next day after the laparoscopic, or minimally-invasive, hysterectomy.

This story reads like an open advertisement for hysterectomy. Laparascopy is better than laparotomy, and yes, you do walk away from the hospital much faster as compared to the usual gynecological surgery. What the story does not tell is that from now on that woman will live without her main sex organ, and that can hurt in more ways that one.

Incidentally, in this hysterectomy news here is an animated video of laparoscopic hysterectomy. If you are interested in video presentations concerning hysterectomy, you can use a rich collection of annotated hysterectomy videos from the very site that you are reading now, How To Avoid Hysterectomy.com.

You can learn more about laparoscopy in hysterectomy, here.

Peggy Anderson Blog: September is
National Gynecological Awareness Month

I’ll just quote Peggy Anderson:

I know that I didn’t consider myself at risk. I was at 23 years of age, had cervical cancer, and had a hystertomy. At 33 years of age I had vaginal cancer due to bad cells left over from my surgery from that caused some major problems for me. Hemorrhaging problems that brought me to emergency wards, even though I had a hysterectomy. I had a procedure called cryosurgery or freezing of the cells. (Since I will turn 60 this next year, I don’t get embarrassed about “the little things in life.” Health is important in our society!)

I always say, “Every day is a gift.” This is especially so for many cancer patients, who cherish the rising of the sun, and the smell of a flower, a new taste, a new day, and a new event. We see the beauty in every day and every tomorrow.

Read her blog post about the conditions that can lead to various forms of gynecological cancers.

I’d like to do her natal chart and see why she had all these medical problems and also what enabled her to survive them all for decades.

Sex After Hysterectomy

Here is an ongoing discussion on the effects hysterectomy has on sex. I added a comment and here is what I have said (I’ll record it here, in case they don’t allow my comment on their blog):

================================

Hi to all here

Although my site is active for more than two years by now, I have only today stumbled upon this blog. The comments here show how painful everything about hysterectomy seems to be and what I find most disturbing is this sheep mentality that so many women succumb to. Oh, the doctor said it would be OK, so it must be OK, right? The thought that some real healing should be tried before the surgery is so alien to the Western World that the results really are sickening.

Every illness has its cause. Removing the cause will lead to true healing, but what do women do instead!? They go to a doctor and hope that they will be able to purchase a solution. Hysterectomy is so widespread in the USA because there is an implicit belief that doctors hold the keys to everything and vise versa, if they don’t know what to do, than all the means are exhausted. This enervates me because I know that there are at least 5, 6 or 7 ways to heal uterine fibroids, heavy menstrual bleeding, cancer and so on. In 20% of cases, hysterectomy will be the only way to proceed, but what about those 80% that can really avoid hysterectomy if only they knew it were possible.

Somebody in these comments said it was not possible to predict the outcome of a hysterectomy. Well, it is possible to predict it through the methods of medical astrology. On my site I list many such cases, and I openly give the recipes that helped several women stop their menstrual bleeding, avoid hystrectomy etc. And here we are not talking about $5000 cost of surgery, we are talking about cheap natural remedies such as herbal remedies, homeopathic remedies, enzymes and the like, that can all be gathered for a few bucks from Amazon.

The point is this: if you want to get healed, you will be — but somebody first has to tell you that you can be healed. Surgery is cutting out, not healing. The Moon rules both the uterus and the breasts, and when they take away the uterus, the energy goes to the breasts… which is why so many women on HRT after hysterectomy develop cancer of the breasts.

For the ladies here that experienced sex drive through the roof after hysterectomy, that kind of behavior is astrologically described as an aspect of Mars and Uranus. It may well be possible that such an aspect was made during the surgery, and that it may affect you harder that it normally would. Strong sexual drives may also come as a result of too much testosterone, so everybody with this type of behavior should control their hormonal mix from time to time.

================================

You can read about hysterectomy side effects from this very site. Also, here is what I wrote about sex after hysterectomy.

That’s it for this week, then!

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First and foremost, this is for women who are threatened by the word hysterectomy and what it really means. 80% of all hysterectomies can be avoided, provided there is time and will. (I can tell you whether is there time, through a medical astrology reading, but you must supply your own will to avoid it.)

YouTube Show 

All astrologers should come and see the readings of the charts, and students of medical astrology should certainly bookmark the site to come and read all of it!

Students and practitioners of various energy healing techniques, such as Reiki, homeopathy, Su Jok, herbal and flower remedies and so on, should also come to How To Avoid Hysterectomy.com to see how their methods blend in with periods of time that were read through the horoscope.

Of course, all others interested in hysterectomy in particular and in gynecology at large should feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed!

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Laparoscopic myomectomy (often spelled as laproscopic) makes sense for subserous and pedunculated myoma. Subserous are close to the outer surface of the uterus, while pedunculated myoma are myoma “hanging” on a stalk to the uterus. Laparoscop is usually inserted through the navel and from there the operation proceeds. Laparoscopy requires several small incisions, so recovery time is much shorthened as compared to conventional or abdominal myomectomy.

You can see laparoscopic myomectomy videos here.

Just as with any other type of myomectomy, the goal of laparoscopy is to stop heavy bleeding and pressure on the internal organs from the (possibly large) fibroids. Theoretically, it is possible to get rid of any kind of uterine fibroids with laparoscopic myomectomy, but the fact is it works best if there were one or two large fibroids. With other types of myoma present, laparoscopy may not be ideal solution, since there will be a defect in the uterus on the place occupied by the fibroid that was taken out, and that defect must be repaired in order to prevent complications.

Read on to see for whom laparoscopic myomectomy is for.

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