Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 December 1950 — Page 25
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SUNDAY. DECOY en
Need Women Live in
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‘By GEORGE KEANEY, Times Special Writer
THERE ARE TWO SCHOOLS of thought on most
matters. In the matter of hysterectomy, the removal of
a woman's womb by surgery, there probably are more than two schools of thought, even of medical thought,
It is not so much the purpose here to argue the fine points of :
hysterectomy, or those of subtotal hysterectomy, the removal of one of the reproductive organs against total hysterectomy. It is the purpose here to point out that if surgery involving the womb, ovaries or fallopian tubes is necessary, they can all be
taken out and, outside the fact that the woman will lose her capacity for motherhood, life can go on as pleasantly. for her as before.’ One of women's great fears is fear of cancer, as it is, and should be, of men, As was mentioned in the first articles in this series, although 25 per cent of all cancer victims are being saved today, the nation’s second worst killer will kill 200,000 persons this year.
About 7500 women will die of
“cancer in this year, or about 20
every day. The great tragedy is that, with early detection of the malignant tumors and present day treatment with X-ray and" surgery, a third of thoge victims could be saved. Much of the fear of cancer in women is fear of cancer in their womanly parts. There, too, they have reason. Two-fifths of the deaths of women from cancer are from cancer of the breast
» and uterus,
Here, however, there's 8 a bright side; Breast and uterus cancers are in what the medical world calls accessible sites. The cure rate today for cancer of the breast is 80 per cent. It's also 80) per cent for cancer of the cervix, the neck of the womb and the part most susceptible to cancer, when there is early detection. Even when the cancer has spread, hysterectomy is saving 50 per cent of the victims. Annual examination, and
semiannual after 35, plus wide-,
spread adoption of the Papanicoloau test, could keep cancer of the uterus from spreading. Testing a vaginal smear, which would contain cells of a cancer of the reproductive organs, if there was one, would detect the cancer early. Now, should a woman, be-
‘eause of a cancer or what the,
male sex passes off as “woman trouble,” require surgery, the question comes up whether it's better to have the ovary, tubes or womb, whichever is affected, removed, or to have ‘a total hysterectomy.
Even Doctors Disagree
THIS IS undoubtedly not the last word on the subject. Even today there are some doctors who decry the widespread use of total hysterectomy where a woman has, for example, fibroids, or nonmalignant tumors of the uterus. S But at a recent Medical Society meeting in New York, Drs. Chester E. Clark and Thomas V. Judge of the Department of Gynecology, Syracuse University Medical Center, reported on “The Role of Complete Surgery in Diseases of the Pelvis.” The doctors, having studied Yesults in hundreds of cases over a 20-year period, reached the conclusion that, where surgery is necessary, it's sensible to advocate total, rather than partial surgery. The complications are no greater and the results have warranted total hysterectomy, the doctors said. To support their conclusion that the risk is no greater they had figures. In 1114 subtotal hysterectomies over the the years, there had been 11 deaths, or death in about 1 per cent of the
cases. In 875 total hysterecto-
mies there were nine deaths;
~also about 1 per cent.
What Figures Show SINCE, if one of the reproductive organs is removed, the possibility of childbearing is precluded and the other organs
_that have a share in mother- used to | to avold prolonged labor
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hood hav: no function, comes a question of whether to preserve a useless organ or not.
(There is a side effect to the -
removal of the ovary which; besides furpishing the egg for fertilization, produces the female sex hormone, estfogen, But that can be supplied.) The doctors from Syracuse argued that partial pelvic surgery often leads to conditions that require further surgery. They concluded, in fact that the probability of serious disease was greater than the risk of complete surgery and the disability caused by the loss of the organs, which is usually negligible. They had figures, too, to show that many of the total hysterectomies in their study were necessary because the initial surgery had been inadequate. Figures showed that 11 per cent of the cancérs of the’ cervix they met, and 5.4 per cent of the ovary. cancers could have been avoided if the original surgery had been total. Total or sub-total, the woman sometimes takes her pick. But it should be some comfort to know that, if she has to, she can lose ona or all of her reproductive organs and lead a full and, in a way, fruitful life, with sex and all.
In the o'd Hays there was an |
unscientific belief that the best cure for tuberculosis in a woman was pregnancy. For a time the pendulum of belief swung to the other extreme and the idea that a pregnant woman who was, or became; tubercular should be aborted was common.
A Happy Medium
NOW, it seems, there's a happy medium. Tuberculosis and pregnancy are not the in. compatible things they seemed , ‘That's not to say tubercular women should be advised to become pregnant. It is better to arrest the disease for a couple of years before undertaking childbirth. But, if a tubercular woman becomes pregnant, it is no cause for great alarm. Her chances of having a normal, non-tubercular child are excellent. : It might be noted that tuberculosis is still the seventh cause of death in this country, the first cause among communicable diseases, Reporting at the same _meeting of the Medical Society in New York, Dr. James Blake reviewed 100 cases: of pregnancy with tuberculosis at Glenridge Sanatorium in Sche-
culogis were involved, in some of which drugs and collapsed lungs had been used as treatments. Dr. Blake's study showed he reported, that pregnancy doesn’t necessarily have an {ll effect on tuberculosis, active or inactive, and that tuberculosis in time of pregnancy is no reason to interrupt the pregnancy.
No Effect on Child
QUITE AS important, no incidence of tuberculosis was found in the babies, whose contact with the mother must be broken immediately. Tuberculosis in pregnancy doesn’t necessarily mean a Caesarian section, either, Dr, Blake found. Normal deliveries were no greater risk than in nontubercular women. And in four cases where a Caesarian was
it be-
Tear of liness?
Doctors Favor Extensive Surgery When Diagnosis Indicates Need
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Poclers look to the day when Xray of Supectant mothers
will become a routine matter.
there was no evidence that the tuberculosis had been influenced one way or the other, The doctor did caution «that ether shouldn’t be used as an anesthetie in deliveries with tubercular women, but other anesthetics are all right. In bringing comfort to the thousands of women who have, or may fear, a weak lung condition, and dread motherhood because of it, Dr. Blake pointed out the importance of X-ray for early diagnosis of tuberculosis. Advocating the close co-opera-tion of the chest doctor and the
%
obstetrician in pregnancies, he looked to the day when X-ray of epectant mothers will be as routine as the Wasserman test has become for syphilis. 80, the medical profession goes on in its constant fight to make life longer and pleasanter. As was said earlier, it has done miracles fo lengthen the life span, increasing it 27 years in the last*four generations. With help from the women themselves it has done better by them than by the so-called rugged male sex. The average life span of women today is 71
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Need Not Be Martyrs
BUT FOR many women those years are not happy ones when they could be. Through failure to use present medical knowledge they go on suffering from the “problems” that are | inseparable from their gender, accepting with resignation the idea they were meant to be martyrs. Often they suffer, pointlessly, | a lifetime of painful menstruation. They live in fear of the |
suffer with the feeling nothing | can be done about it, when something can. Longing for a family, they doom theyselves to | sterility, when they may not be | sterile at all, Even their fear of cancer, dreadful as that | disease is, is often’ without | warrant, The price one pays for being | a woman needn't he as great
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