HERS Gives Gynecologists Female Anatomy Lesson:
12-Minute Video To Save More Than $17B/year
There are 22 million women alive today in America whose reproductive sex organs have been removed. A statistically insignificant number of men have had their sex organs removed, even though the rate of cancer in the male and female organs is nearly identical.[1]
The female reproductive sex organs are internal…the functions are not visible. Consequently, what is often referred to as the most over-utilized and unwarranted surgery remains the most commonly performed non-obstetric surgery in America, at a cost of more than $17B/year.[2]
A new 12-minute female anatomy video from the HERS Foundation makes the female organs and their functions visible (available at http://hersfoundation.com/anatomy/index.html). “Female Anatomy: the Functions of the Female Organs” provides an essential component of the educational process known as informed consent, which is necessary for women to understand the physical consequences of hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) and oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries, the female gonads, which is castration).
The HERS Foundation has demonstrated the effectiveness of this brief anatomy lesson by counseling over 850,000 women and providing information to millions of people worldwide. Of the women who were provided with the information contained in this video, 98% did not proceed with hysterectomy and pursued a conservative treatment option. Many women realized they did not have a medical problem at all, and no treatment was needed. In an ongoing HERS survey begun in 1991, 99.7% of women reported that they were not informed of the functions of the female organs or the consequences of their removal and would not have proceeded with the surgery had this information been provided to them.
HERS’ working model of educating women and girls is unique because it gives them control of their own bodies, free to review the information at their own pace and in their own time. Women who contact HERS are shocked to discover that they were not given the basic information that is requisite to informed consent.
Can you imagine a country where the sex organs are removed from 622,000 mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends each year? That country isn’t in Africa or Asia or South America. It’s the United States of America…simply because they were deprived of 12 minutes of information.
Visit www.hersfoundation.org/anatomy to view the video. This information was sent to the chair and faculty of the OB/Gyn departments of ten of the top medical schools in America, the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and the National Institutes of Health:
Baylor College of Medicine:
Dale Brown, Jr., MD, Interim Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (713) 798-7500
Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons:
Mary E. D’Alton, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (212) 305-3101
Duke University School of Medicine:
Haywood Laverne Brown, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (919) 684-4008
Harvard Medical School:
Robert L. Barbieri, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (617) 732-4222
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine:
Harold E. Fox, MD, Chair, Gynecology & Obstetrics, (410) 614-0178
University of Michigan Medicine School:
Timothy R. B. Johnson, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology (734) 764-8123
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine:
George A. Macones, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (314) 362-7135
University of Washington School of Medicine:
David A. Eschenbach, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (206) 616-8305
UCLA School of Medicine:
Gautam Chaudhuri, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (310) 206-6575
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine:
Nancy C. Chescheir, MD, Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, (615) 322 3385
American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology:
Kenneth L. Noller, MD, President; Douglas H. Kirkpatrick, MD, President-Elect; Peter A. Schwartz, MD, Vice President, (202) 638-5577
National Institutes of Health:
Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, Director, (301) 496-4000
Raynard S. Kington, MD, Deputy Director; Norka Ruiz Bravo, MD, Deputy Director; & Michael Gottesman, MD, Deputy Director, (301) 496-4000
Vivian Pinn, MD, Director of Office on Research on Women’s Health, (301) 402-1770
[1] Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[2] HERS Foundation. Conservative estimate of immediate hospital and doctor-related charges. Does not include additional costs incurred for treatment of chronic adverse effects of the surgery, such as heart disease (3x greater incidence if only the uterus is removed, 7x greater if the ovaries are removed), osteoporosis, and loss of income for the 50% of women who are unable to maintain previous employment.
Source: Hysterectomy Educational Resources & Services Foundation (http://www.hersfoundation.org
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