Age: 50 years old
Resides: Alaska
I am fifty years old, divorced and the mother of two grown children. I have no known prospects of remarriage and no desire to have more children. When I began to have problems that I did not want to ignore, I began to seek the source. I eliminated the possibilities of liver, gall bladder and colon as the sources of the discomfort through a nutritional approach, ultrasound and blood tests. Eventually the problem seemed to be coming from the reproductive organs. Again I sought to understand what was wrong.
A physician’s examination and ultrasound narrowed it down to an ovarian problem, which was probably a cyst. I still wanted to understand more about it. What was the cause? How could it be treated? What would happen if it was left alone?
None of the doctors were in any big hurry to settle the issue. I didn’t understand the nonchalance I felt from them until I discovered that there was a hidden agenda which was that women my age are simply expected to have hysterectomies if they have problems. In my case a hysterectomy was recommended as well as an oophmectomy. I didn’t have cancer but they wanted to take the entire organ out. I just couldn’t reconcile myself to that idea.
I continued to seek out the matter and finally hit bedrock. I found a doctor that would surgically repair what was wrong with the organs and not amputate them. It is very simply called female reconstructive surgery and, for a fixed price, every pathology present in your female reproductive organs is taken care of. In the end, you keep these vital organs which can then continue to contribute to the overall health of the body.
The doctor’s name is Tirso del Junco Jr. His father is a surgeon and his son has been around surgical procedures since he was nine years old. He has an established practice as a General Vascular Surgeon but ten years ago, by administrative request, he learned the approach of reconstructing female organs and now stands alone as a qualified surgeon putting his skills as a vascular surgeon to good use in what was once a very bloody operation. He removes most of the blood from the organs and then works quickly to deal with any pathologies he finds (fibroid tumors, cysts, endometriosis, hernias, resuspension of organs), cleansing the organs and sewing the wound up carefully and quickly to allow for as little trauma as possible.
Female medicine is a very new field and they are just beginning to tap into what these organs contribute to our overall health. Though I may never need my uterus again for enhanced relations with a husband or for childbearing, all of the possible contributions this tough little organ is making to my overall health have not been determined yet and I am glad the possibilities have not been eliminated. Dr. del Junco Jr. said, “In Med school we were taught that the only time you remove an organ is when it is cancerous. 650,000 hysterectomies a year in this country alone suggest that a large percentage of surgeons are not adhering to that standard.” The potential for a young lady or married woman to be given a hysterectomy when they have a benign condition that could be taken care of in another way is still very high. I encountered this diagnosis four times before I found someone who would repair, rather than destroy. That’s why I’m writing this. Consider the alternative.
D.H.
