Your Guide to Hysterectomy, Ovary Removal, & Hormone Replacement: What All Women Need to Know [Hardcover]

Elizabeth L. Plourde (Author), C. Norman Shealy (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

Combining personal stories of women's surgical experiences with the most recent medical data, this book offers a unique exploration into the issues surrounding hysterectomy and ovary removal. Well-documented with scientific references, it argues against the common belief that women's reproductive organs are dispensable after their childbearing years and looks at the full impact of reproductive organ removal on women's health. Detailed information on the side effects that can arise from these surgeries is provided, including high blood pressure, heart disease, osteoporosis, depression, fibromyalgia, sexual dysfunction, and bladder and bowel problems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A serious wake-up call and a must-read for any woman considering a hysterectomy."

Stephen Sinatra, MD,FACC, Author: HeartSense -- Professional Endorsement

About the Author

Elizabeth Plourde, C.L.S., M.A., is a licensed clinical laboratory scientist who was prompted to research reproductive organ removal after her own surgery. She lives in Irvine, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Voice Publications (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966173538
• ISBN-13: 978-0966173536
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,079,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I want these hormones, Doc!, May 4, 2005

By 

Sam Haehn - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Guide to Hysterectomy, Ovary Removal, & Hormone Replacement: What All Women Need to Know (Paperback)

I want these hormones!..And I held up Suzanne Somers' The Sexy Years book. My ob/gyn smiled, ran tests for three months, and insisted upon surgery, instead. The accumulated billing:$5500. I released her to her tennis match.

Hemorrhaging for nine months taught me how feeble the world felt at below 7.2 hemoglobin. Sometimes before rush hour it was crucial to cover the driver's seat with a plastic garbage bag. On one occasion, gross clotting deposited what appeared to be a hatchling from Alien onto the floor of Macy's Department Store. I carried an extra change of clothing, always.

Prior go our first visit, my present M.D. suggested reading Elizabeht Plourde's Gruide book. I quickly began flowering into an informed patient. The authors knowledge, experience, presentation, and easy writing style fascinated and motivated the me to begin making better choices. My first visit with my new M.D. became less costly and more productive as a result.

Two months of topical bioidentical progesterone-$10 per month from Womens International Pharmacy-and I returned to my tennis loving ob/gyn for a recheck. The hemorrhaging and hair loss had ceased, but the fringe benefits made me the office marvel. The left ovariean cyst was gone, the septation on the right ovarian cyst disappeared, the right ovary need not be removed , and uterine fibroids showed a marked size reduction, as did my distended abdomen.

Good information, good questions, courage and carefully chosen doctors and healthcare providers create miracles. Sharing creates a marvelous network of supportive individuals. I share Elizabeth Plourde's Guide book with belly dancers, divas, vitamin specialists, health food stores, attorneys, physicians, and husbands of affected women.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Afraid of the Truth, March 30, 2006

By 

bluebookworm (Indio, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Guide to Hysterectomy, Ovary Removal, & Hormone Replacement: What All Women Need to Know (Paperback)

The review below by a gynecologist simply proves Ms. Plourde's point: with little or no honesty from the medical profession, a woman is left to fend for herself when there are problems. Plourde points out that removal of ANY "female" organs affects them all, and the other body systems as well. I was a victim of this surgery, believing my doctors and continuing for many months to believe that the attendant shut-downs of other systems (notably thyroid) and development of other illnesses (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome) were unrelated.

Plourde's book is not negative, but honest. EVERY woman considering a hysterectomy should read this book!

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst thing to read if you've had a hysterectomy, June 20, 2003

By 

Blueridge Artist (Hendersonville, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Guide to Hysterectomy, Ovary Removal, & Hormone Replacement: What All Women Need to Know (Paperback)

I ordered this book because I needed some help with Hrt. I thought that was what I was getting. Instead, the book I got was Hysterectomy and Ovary Removal, by the same author. If I could have given this book negative five stars, I would have.

What an absolutely terrible book for someone who has just made the most awful decision of her life. I had two choices. Hysterectomy or bleed to death due to an advanced case of adenomyosis. I had spent over five years trying every other treatment available to me. I needed help to move on and make the best of it. This book is venomously antihysterectomy. In just reading the few pages I read, I was truly depressed and scared. The author lists a zillion different complications women have after this surgery, saying that every woman will come down with them. She says its not if the woman has them, but when.

It would seem the author is totally unaware of the mind/body connection which has seen so much research lately. You can literally think your way to many illnesses just through fear and obsessing over what "might" happen. I refuse to allow the fear and anger of the author to affect my recovery. I am sending this book back!!