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Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this if you're post-op!
Review: Due to a rare complication of my pregnancy I underwent a life-saving emergency hysterectomy. I thought I was having a great recovery until I read this book. Suddenly every little twinge reminded me of the horror stories I'd read about. This is not the book to read AFTER you've had the surgery! I feel the author's pain and suffering in her personal experience with this surgery, but for some of us it's not an elective. It's useless to agonize and 'what-if' after the fact.
Rating: 
Summary: A needed corrective
Review: I agree with previous reviews that this book is largely anti-hysterectomy, but the book is a needed corrective to the unfortunate trend of unneeded hysterectomy. I appreciated the honesty of the book and it helped me to make my decision to have my hysterectomy. I never felt the author was against the procedure, only against unneeded surgery. The book might have been more careful about establishing the fact that hysterectomy is indeed necessary sometimes and perhaps it could have been more respectful of women's choices and fears; at the same time, "Your Guide" does show that hysterectomy is no "walk in the park." It's tough and no one should undergo the procedure unless she needs to. If a woman is told she needs a hysterectomy, she needs to do her homework and, if necessary, get another opinion. Hysterectomy is not a simple operation, it is major surgery, and it is a life-changing surgery. This book is very clear about that. Readers need to put the book into the context of their own experience, and if they do that, they will likely find the book useful.
Rating:
Summary: A needed corrective
Review: I ordered this book because I needed some help with Hrt. I thought that was what I was getting. Instead, the book I got was Hysterectomy and Ovary Removal, by the same author. If I could have given this book negative five stars, I would have.What an absolutely terrible book for someone who has just made the most awful decision of her life. I had two choices. Hysterectomy or bleed to death due to an advanced case of adenomyosis. I had spent over five years trying every other treatment available to me. I needed help to move on and make the best of it. This book is venomously antihysterectomy. In just reading the few pages I read, I was truly depressed and scared. The author lists a zillion different complications women have after this surgery, saying that every woman will come down with them. She says its not if the woman has them, but when. It would seem the author is totally unaware of the mind/body connection which has seen so much research lately. You can literally think your way to many illnesses just through fear and obsessing over what "might" happen. I refuse to allow the fear and anger of the author to affect my recovery. I am sending this book back!!
Rating: 
Summary: Invaluable Facts and Insights
Review: In her first book, Your Guide to Hysterectomy, Ovary Removal & Hormone Replacement, Elizabeth Plourde dared to express what is sadly often inadmissible in our culture - the outrage, pain and loss she experienced when waking from surgery to find that necessary and vital feminine organs were removed without her consent. She, like untold numbers of women, was launched into an challenged existence of physical disability, when unnaturally deprived of her critical hormone-producing ovaries, in particular.During her recovery, she began an unprecedented process of research into the effects of complete hysterectomy, that spanned 16 years, coming up with valuable information on the potential long term effects of ovary removal, which are rarely available to women who are seeking to understand all dimensions of this surgical process.
Sustaining a hysterectomy, or deciding to have a hysterectomy, is monumental - although the numbers of this procedure done in this country defies that fact. Elizabeth Plourde is valiant in challenging the normalizing perception of this surgery, and in doing so, may spare countless numbers of women untold and unexpected suffering, help to shift the limiting paradigms in modern medical thought,and validate women's rights to be educated about their bodies and make informed health decisions. She also provides critical information for hysterectomized women regarding promoting and maintaining their post-surgical health and well-being.
Thank you, Elizabeth Plourde, for your courage, dedication and perseverance! This is a book that has desperately needed to be written, and gives a critical voice a precious value,and much needed guidance to countless many.
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