The surgery will free them from the worry of having to protect their uterus with hormones. Gail Sheehy asked one doctor if he took the ovaries out as a routine procedure. The doctor nonchalantly told her, In a postmenopausal woman, the ovaries are of no use anyway. This doctor was disregarding the fact that the ovaries continue to manufacture testosterone, which, as Sheehy points out, strongly influences a woman s sexual desire and energy. We might want to think several times before considering a hysterctomy.
Every organ has an integral role to play throughout one s entire life.
In her book Sheehy tells us that between 33 and 46 percent of the women whose ovaries had also been removed complained of reduced sexual responsiveness. Dr. Howard Judd of UCLA, an expert on the postmenopausal ovary, emphasizes that the concept that the ovary burns out is not true. The fact is that after menopause, even though the ovaries no longer produce estrogen, they do manufacture testosterone. When the cervix and uterus are removed, some women feel the effects of menopause within two years of the surgery. So, coerced menopause often befalls women when they are quite young.