Ten Questions to Ask Your Doctor When He or She Recommends a Hysterectomy

If you are one of the 55,000 women that will undergo a hysterectomy this month (that's 650,000 per year), think twice.

For Immediate Release                  Contact: Barbara Kimmel, Publisher
(800) 595-5440 / (908) 879-6625          barbara@nextdecade.com

If you are one of the 55,000 women that will undergo a hysterectomy this month (thats 650,000 per year), think twice. Although ninety percent of these surgeries are unnecessary, it is the quickest and cheapest option for doctors and insurance companies ... and the worst for women --leading to rapid, unnatural aging, weight gain and sexual dysfunction.

Lise Cloutier-Steele, an award winning writer, communications specialist, hysterectomy survivor and author of a brand new book, Misinformed Consent - Womens Stories about Unnecessary Hysterectomy, suggests asking your doctor the following questions before you consent to surgery.

1. Why have you recommended a hysterectomy? If you dont have cancer, theres no good answer.
2. What other treatment options are available? There are several.
3. What are the surgical risks of hysterectomy? If your doctor downplays the risks, watch out.
4. Which organs are you going to remove and why? If your doctor is going to remove your ovaries, there had better be a good explanation as to why. Dont buy the story about future cancer risk.
5. Who will perform the hysterectomy? Make sure its the doctor and not another surgeon or resident in training.
6. What are all the possible side effects of hysterectomy? If your doctor tells you Your life will be better than ever", get a second opinion.
7. Will I be going into menopause after this surgery? Surgical and natural menopause, are not the same.
8. Can hormone replacement therapy provide adequate relief after hysterectomy? In many cases, it cant.
9. What are the side effects of hormone replacement therapy? Pick up any newspaper and find out for yourself.
10. Will you be able to help me after my surgery? If your doctor tells you Youll be fine", present the good doc" with a copy of Misinformed Consent and seek a second opinion.

Misinformed Consent -- Womens Stories about Unnecessary Hysterectomy
Is available for $16.95 plus $5.00 shipping (priority mail) from Next Decade, Inc., 39 Old Farmstead Road, Chester, NJ 07930; www.nextdecade.com / (800) 595-5440, or at your favorite bookstore. To get a free email report of 40 Questions to Ask Your Doctor before Hysterectomy", send an email with the subject Forty Hysterectomy Questions" to info@nextdecade.com.

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

I am certain that any woman who reads this book will think twice before agreeing to an unnecessary hysterectomy."
-- Stanley T. West, M.D., Chief of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, St. Vincents Hospital and Medical Center, NY. Author of The Hysterectomy Hoax

Lise Cloutier-Steele 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. She is available for interviews. Media review copies are available upon request. Contact Barbara Kimmel, Phone (800) 595-5440.

###