For years patients have been able to choose to have a tummy tuck or a tubal ligation. Now the trend is to choose to have a Caesarean Section. Read this timely story below:
MANAGED CARE January 2003.
Not long ago, managed care plans sought to reduce the rate of C-section births in the U.S. Now, C-sections are going up -- and plans are going along.
Not long ago, managed care plans sought to reduce the rate of C-section births in the U.S. Now, C-sections are going up -- and plans are going along.
Changing Medical Evidence Brings Shift in C-Section Stance
By Bob Carlson
By Bob Carlson
"Dr. Jennifer Berman has a request that strikes at the heart of a controversy," Diane Sawyer explained as video footage showed Berman's five-month prenatal visit to her Ob/Gyn. "What she's about to ask for is an elective C-section. She wants to have her baby surgically, and she's doing it, she says, because of her first childbirth experience and because the problems she sees in her patients after they have vaginal births."
This is a story we're likely to encounter more often. Elective C-sections (also called C-section on demand) are, in part, behind the skyrocketing Cesarean-section birth rate in the United States.
Like many Ob/Gyns, Flamm and Lockwood regard C-sections as major surgery with quantifiable risks and that they should be done only if medically indicated. At the same time, they acknowledge that patient choice may become the decisive factor. That scenario gained credibility in 2001 when then- ACOG president Benson Harer, MD, advocated on-demand Cesareans in his organization's newsletter. Speaking for himself and not for ACOG, Harer argued that Cesarean delivery is less traumatic for baby and mother.
"My belief is that Cesarean birth is fundamentally superior for mothers and babies," says Walters, an Ob/Gyn in Mount Vernon, Ill. "The maternal mortality rate in the United States would go down and so would long-term morbidity in terms of injury to the pelvic floor, specifically bladder prolapse, stress urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and uterine prolapse -- for all of which, vaginal birth is the number one risk factor."
Flamm expects to see an all-time high rate of Cesarean sections in the United States for 2002. Lockwood can conceive of a 50-percent rate within 10 years. Walters predicts that all American births will be via C-section within 20 years.
"I don't think a doctor should tell us how to have a baby," said Berman at the end of her "Healthy Woman" segment on Good Morning America. "We're able to choose whether we want laparoscopic surgery or open surgery, whether we want a boob job or a tummy tuck. Why can't we choose this?"
Click Here For The Complete Story
I've thought for years that one of the main reasons my patients have hysterectomies is to eliminate pelvic pain and thereby have better sex. Here's the latest research that says a hysterectomy improves sexual satisfaction.
Better Sex After Hysterectomy
Female Orgasm, Satisfaction, Improves for Most
By Jeanie Lerche Davis
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Oct. 2, 2003 -- Sex after a hysterectomy is better, one group of researchers reports. It's long been thought that, during a hysterectomy, damage to vaginal nerves and support structures may affect women's sexual well-being, writes researcher Jan-Paul W. R. Roovers, MD, an obstetrics-gynecology professor at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Oct. 2, 2003 -- Sex after a hysterectomy is better, one group of researchers reports. It's long been thought that, during a hysterectomy, damage to vaginal nerves and support structures may affect women's sexual well-being, writes researcher Jan-Paul W. R. Roovers, MD, an obstetrics-gynecology professor at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
A hysterectomy can be done either through an incision in the abdomen or the uterus can be removed through the vagina. Surgeons have not known whether one technique leaves better sex after hysterectomy and better female orgasms, than the other. Does an abdominal hysterectomy leave more nerves and blood vessels undamaged? Or does a vaginal hysterectomy offer more protection to those nerves and blood vessels?
In this study, Roovers and his colleagues -- in 13 teaching hospitals throughout the Netherlands -- compared effects of vaginal hysterectomy, abdominal hysterectomy, and abdominal hysterectomy with cervix intact in 352 women.
Sex after hysterectomy was better, regardless of the surgical procedure they had, he reports. Most of the women -- 310 in all -- were sexually active both before and after hysterectomy. But of the 32 women who were not sexually active before hysterectomy, 53% became sexually active afterwards.
However, for some women, problems persisted. Some who had abdominal hysterectomy continued to have lubrication, arousal, and sensation difficulties. Ten women who had been sexually active before hysterectomy were no longer sexually active afterwards. In fact, there was a trend in new sexual problems in some women but no obvious increase was detected.
This study is the first to focus on sex after hysterectomy and female sexual well-being, notes Roovers. Trends in persistent problems warrant further study, he says.
In celebration of the upcoming Holidays, CLICK HERE for a Christmas melody brought to you by the National Health Service of Great Britain. Happy Holidays To All.
The above is not meant to be medical advice. Please read the attached Disclaimer, Etc.
If you know anyone you think would like to receive "DrRehertsAlerts," CLICK HERE to send me their email address and I'll add them to the list.
Best wishes. Dr. Rehert
Offline 
Send Email