Millions of Unnecessary Hysterectomies: Old News / Big Business / Ruined Lives

Sobering and personal stories about life altering hysterectomies. Empowers women to demand better and more honest medical care.

By the age of sixty, about one third of all North American women have had a hysterectomy, and they are often encouraged to surrender their ovaries at the same time. Most of these procedures are elective, agreed to by women whose doctors said that the uterus and/or the ovaries have no value beyond reproduction, and that the lost hormones can be replaced artificially. Doctors would not recommend the removal of a male patients testicles once his family was complete, so why do we continue to subject women to unnecessary castration?

In Misinformed Consent, Lise Cloutier-Steele has joined other survivors to speak out about the prejudices and the traumas that accompanied their hysterectomies. In combining their moving personal stories, the women of Misinformed Consent hope to:

 enlighten readers with honest accounts on the impact that surgical castration can have on a womans sexuality;
 dispel the myth that all women feel wonderful after a hysterectomy and/or oophorectomy;
 provide information on alternative treatments;
 warn others against the potential dangers of hormone replacement therapy;
 offer validation to those who suffer greatly from the aftereffects of hysterectomy and oophorectomy; and
 empower women everywhere to demand better and more honest care.

In order to ensure that we and our physicians become better informed, this poignant book begins with a strong demand for change and ends with a comprehensive list of resources that will help women better protect themselves."
-- Jane Pincus, Co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century, and Co-founder of the
Boston Womens Health Book Collective

Lise Cloutier-Steele is a communications specialist and a professional writer and editor, who has herself had a traumatic experience with hysterectomy. She is the author of Living and Learning with a Child Who Stutters. And she is the recipient of a Canada 125 Award in recognition of a significant contribution to the community and to Canada for her volunteer efforts to help the parents of children who stutter. She has appeared on Canada AM, the Womens Television Network, The Phil Donahue Show, The Body and Health Show, and several other media to talk about the important topic of unnecessary hysterectomy in North America.

Misinformed Consent includes a foreword by Dr. Stanley T. West of New York, a reproductive medicine specialist, and the author of The Hysterectomy Hoax. It also includes an overview by Mary Anne Wyatt of Massachusetts, a researcher in molecular biology and electrochemistry.

Journalists: To arrange for an interview with Lise Cloutier-Steele, Dr. Stanley West or
Mary Anne Wyatt, please contact the publisher, (800) 595-5440 / (908) 879-6625, barbara@nextdecade.com. or
Lise Cloutier-Steele directly through her web site:
www.misinformedconsent.com

Ordering Information:
Misinformed Consent -- Womens Stories about Unnecessary Hysterectomy
(Revised Edition)
ISBN 0-9700908-6-2, publication date early 2003
$16.95, Available from Next Decade, Inc., www.nextdecade.com / (800) 595-5440, or at your favorite bookstore.