4 ms·

At one point, it was so common for an African-American woman to get an involuntary hysterectomy that it got its own euphemism: The Mississippi Appendectomy [0]

At one point, it was so common for an African-American woman to get an involuntary hysterectomy that it got its own euphemism: The Mississippi Appendectomy [0] [0] https://mississippiappendectomy.wordpress.com/about/ https://mississippiappendectomy.wordpress.com/about/ (That's the first result from big G, but you should be able to find more were you so inclined).

08-15 10y ago
Come on! All people who got their womb removed in the 1920s and 30s are dead now. They don't affect any statistics anymore, especially not those concerning women who had their womb removed by the age of 55. I agree with GP, a rate of >40% hysterectomies sounds unbelievable.
- Retric 10y ago
  Someone born in 1924 would be 15 in 1939 and ~93 today. So, not everyone that got it in the 30's would be dead. However, "A hysterectomy is the second most common surgery among women in the United States. The most common surgery in women is childbirth by cesarean delivery (C-section). Each year in the United States, nearly 500,000 women get hysterectomies" so it really is common. Over 50 years that would be around 25 million women. Total female population is ~160 million or around 16%. But you only really care about adult women which would have higher rates. So, a baseline of 20% with some sub populations being 2x higher seems completely believable.
- rabboRubble 10y ago
  You would like to think that forced sterilization is an old timey problem. It's not. The state of California forcibly sterilized ~150 female inmates as late as 2010 [0]. More to read up on... [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#Unite... [1] http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterilization/ http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterili... Edit: would love to know why this post was down voted. Is there a wellspring of support for sterilization without consent? Completely mystified at this point.

08-15 10y ago

Come on! All people who got their womb removed in the 1920s and 30s are dead now. They don't affect any statistics anymore, especially not those concerning women who had their womb removed by the age of 55. I agree with GP, a rate of >40% hysterectomies sounds unbelievable.

Retric 10y ago
Someone born in 1924 would be 15 in 1939 and ~93 today. So, not everyone that got it in the 30's would be dead. However, "A hysterectomy is the second most common surgery among women in the United States. The most common surgery in women is childbirth by cesarean delivery (C-section). Each year in the United States, nearly 500,000 women get hysterectomies" so it really is common. Over 50 years that would be around 25 million women. Total female population is ~160 million or around 16%. But you only really care about adult women which would have higher rates. So, a baseline of 20% with some sub populations being 2x higher seems completely believable.
rabboRubble 10y ago
You would like to think that forced sterilization is an old timey problem. It's not. The state of California forcibly sterilized ~150 female inmates as late as 2010 [0]. More to read up on... [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#Unite... [1] http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterilization/ http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterili... Edit: would love to know why this post was down voted. Is there a wellspring of support for sterilization without consent? Completely mystified at this point.