Hysterectomy CAN Improve Women's Health!

 

Endometriosis, Considered a Shame in Japan

 When I informed my Japanese parents that I have #endometriosis , they erupted in outrage, excoriating me for bringing disgrace on the family. I guess they consider any type of gynecological condition to be embarrassing and obscene; a serious failure on my part.

 BTW endometriosis isn't a sexually transmitted disease; it's an auto-immune and hormonal condition; can happen to any woman.

 My parents believed that endo was sexually transmitted and nothing I told them would change their minds about it. 

 They asked my how many men I had slept with to get that kind of disease and told me not to go to the Dr.s because it would bring shame to the family.

 

Endometriosis Made Me Lose Faith in Myself

 From my first menstruation I always had the notion "there's something wrong with my period, it's different from what I hear from my friends."

 Hence it was actually a relief when Dr.s diagnosed me with endo. I'm sure anyone who's had to deal w/ health issues where the cause is unclear will understand what I'm saying.

 

 I hated myself and my body. I lost faith in myself;  thought the that reason I couldn't put in the same amount of work as other people was due to my lack of worth ethics and character, and always beat myself up for that. 

 

  I considered myself lucky to be diagnosed with something. As long as the cause is clear, there will be ways to deal with it. 

 

Hope of having Hysterectomy one day helped me carry on

 Around that time I read in a book:

"Currently, there is no cure for endometriosis… Recurrences after treatment are common. When all else fails, hysterectomy with removal of the ovaries else fails, hysterectomy with removal of the ovaries else fails, hysterectomy with removal of the ovariesis commonly suggested. "

 Hysteretomy probably sounds terrifying to a healthy woman, but to me this information was great news.  When all else fails, I can have hysterectomy! That helped me get through the rougn years.

 All else did fail, 10+ years later when I had become like a vegetable, not living, just existing. I finally decided NOW is the time to get hysterectomy, and went to the hospital.

 

Doctors refuse hysterectomy on me

 However at the hospital here is what the Japanese Dr. told me: 

"Hysterectomy isn't guaranteed to make you feel any better"

"In the past, a woman got hysterectomy after having a child but she came back wanting to get pregnant again because she remarried"

"You're still young, you never know what your going to want in the future"

 

 She told me I'm not qualified for hysterectomy, even thought by that time I had uterus adenomyosis, fibroid, and PCOS on top of endo. 

 I was disappointed. Insulted. Enraged. It was hard holding back my tears in her office.

 From that point, it took me about 6months to find a hospital that would perform hysterectomy on me. I visited about 5 clinics and large hospitals total. 

 Currently, it's been a year and a half from my surgery. I'm not as energetic as people with regular health, but I feel about as healthy I was 20 years ago; and that's pretty good in my book. 

 In Japan hysterctomy has such a bad reputation and stigma. But to me it was a procedure that helped me reclaim my health and do things I couldn't do in a long time. If you read my bood you'll see, but that includes sexual life aswell. Hysterectomy really improved the quality of life (QOL) for me.

 

Want to send the message that hysterectomy can improve QOL

 I wanted to self publish my book because I wanted to send out the message to Japan that "hysterectomy can improve a woman's quality of health.

 Even today, I'm sure there's a Japanese woman with endometriosis being told that

"Hysterectomy isn't guaranteed to make you feel any better"

 

 I wish I could just bust in there and scream
"Waaaaaait! At least it's made ME feel better!"

 But since I can't do that, I wanted to make it into a book so people unfamiliar with the web will have a chance to read it too. 

 Of course, I'm just one case, hysterectomy may not be for everyone. However, I believe it's for the woman to decide which treatment to get. Everyone's bodies are different and everyone is at a different stage in their lives. There is no ONE treatment that fits ALL women.

All I'm asking is to just let the woman decide for herself which path to take. It's not the doctor's job to start a negative campaign against hysterectomy.

 In Japan many times the patient herself has the least say in how to treat her body, which is not fair, not fair at all. 

 

Fundraising

 For all of you who contributed, thank you for trusting me, a nobody. I am a nobody but will be even less than nobody without you. I can't express enough how much I appreciate you all. Without you, I won't be able to do this. Love you all very much.