Day 6 Blog # The Imperfect Woman

The Female Metamorphosis.

Recently, my friend Anita was advised to have a hysterectomy.
She's had a history of all sorts of shitty menstrual problems over the years and now that she's finished having children, it was suggested that removing her uterus might be the best option.



Anita hasn't had the hysterectomy because she's a bit freaked out. She's decided to wait and see if menopause might ease her symptoms. A cocktail of opiate based drugs have been prescribed instead.

Her doctors didn't really push for surgery and I think I know why.
Something's been smelling mighty fishy to me for some time now, the same way the increase in caesareans has aroused my suspicion.

Anita is not medically insured.

All the articles I've perused on this matter share the same findings.
Hysterectomies are performed at around twice the rate on insured women as they are on public patients yet obstetricians admit that less than 10% of those surgeries are for life threatening conditions. Publicly performed hysterectomies are labelled as 'rare'.



Gynecologists, hospitals and drug companies make more than $17B dollars a year from the business of hysterectomy.

Who is fueling the obsession. Us......or them?
The chicken or the egg?

It all just reeks to me of the current obsession we have with, what I call,

'The Imperfect Woman'

ie.

Our vaginas aren't tight enough.
(many women are asked if they want a few extra stitches post childbirth and hysterectomy).



Our boobs are too saggy, tummies too flabby, bums too big and we're too hairy.
(90% of all cosmetic surgery is performed on women).



Periods are unnecessary and problematic.
(take 'Lybrel' by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and banish menstruation forever).



Childbirth is too painful. Babies can be surgically removed.
(Caesarian birth rates are significantly higher in private hospitals).



Why not just wrap it all up in one go and get a 'Mummy Makeover'?
(Here's an ad from a Double Bay "restorative" clinic.)

"A "“mummy make-over”" is a one stage procedure of restoring the body contour by performing a breast augmentation or lift, a tummy tuck and liposuction. A study of over 151 consecutive cases from California confirms that there is no increase in risk from combining these procedures on an outpatient surgical basis.

Many of our Australian patients fall into this category and being able to get into swimwear and wear nicer, sexier clothes without unattractive bulges, or to remove skin which is wrinkled and/or torn from pregnancy, results in patients who are more confident in themselves. Many women feel that once their children start school, it is time to treat themselves to a “mummy make-over”."

I don't wish to demonize women who elect to have hysterectomies or cosmetic procedures. The satisfaction rates are, in fact, high.

Few of us can escape the allure of a body that is beautiful, practical, simple and pain free.

Medicine has given us untold benefits.

It rewards us all, as physical and spiritual beings, to be fit, healthy, happy and educated.

It doesn't benefit us to obsess about perfection.

It doesn't exist.