After doctors told her she had advanced ovarian cancer and needed an urgent hysterectomy, Tracey Murray's life spiralled into chaos.
'My consultant said the cancer was extensive. I discovered that without surgery I could die within a year,' she recalls.
'The shock, of course, was profound. I was told I'd need six months of chemotherapy following the operation and that after that, my chances of living for five years were 50 per cent. I was devastated.'
Consider, then, the mix of emotions that ensued when, three weeks after Tracey, a 41-
year-old divorcee, had her womb, both ovaries and cervix removed, she was told that she did not, after all, have any form of cancer.
In fact she had endometriosis, a common condition in which pieces of her womb lining had embedded in an ovary.
And it could have been treated by cutting away the affected cells or destroying them by laser; indeed, it might have needed no treatment at all.
In either case, her hysterectomy had been unnecessary. For Tracey, this common operation - 60,000 to 70,000 are performed in Britain each year - had not proved to be a godsend, but a curse. And her case is far from isolated.
While experts have warned that the operation is absolutely necessary for cancer, critics claim the invasive procedure has become over-used.
For more on this story follow the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1284776/Robbed-femininity-How-thousands-women-having-needless-hysterectomies.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0qGM3lAPF
No comments:
Post a Comment