RE: Uterectomy with bi-lateral castration 

 Correct medical terminology can be "castration" which is easier to write and understand than a bi-lateral oophorectomy. According to the glossary in my college physiology text book "The Human Body" by Best and Taylor "castration" is defined as "excision of the gonads, either male or female." The Latin root word is "castro" meaning to deprive of genital organs. 

 The word "castrati" is commonly used in music to identify male singers who had their testicles removed in order to retain a higher range voice than they would be capable of having were they allowed to go through puberty. The last male castrato was recorded and is available on CD from very old wax recordings made at the turn of the century. 

 The discussion has taken place before on asm so if there is any "shock" value to the use of this word, then it also means there is shock value registered to the procedure itself. Calling the procedure a different name does not change what happens. It is not the word that needs to be changed, only one's reaction to it. 

 Sloppy record keeping failed to distinguish earlier in surgical menopause figures between solely a uterine removal or a uterine removal plus ovarian removal. This makes all early studies on surgical menopause essentially worthless. And many of the studies we are seeing today still fail to make this distinction. 

 I choose the more comprehensive term castration when surgical menopause is discussed until it can be clarified that indeed the ovaries were not removed, and that ovaries retained were not damaged and rendered functionless by the surgical procedure. Tubal ligations can result in functional damage to the ovaries. 

 Any pelvic surgery (or procedure) that damages the blood supply to the ovaries can do the same. Consequently, the full use of the word hysterectomy must be "removal of genital organs", until proven that the ovaries in fact escaped undamaged and are still fully functioning. In surgical menopause, we are typically talking about the impact of the total and abrupt loss of the production of relevant hormones. So the retention of useless, damaged ovaries acts functionally equivalent to their removal. 

 Additionally, several women in the past on asm have used the word "castration" to refer to their own surgical procedure and one demanded that her doctor use the term to as it was the most accurate way to describe what had happened to her. 

 Would you like to supply better terminology that will be generally recognized or do you want to try and "shock" us with your choice of proffered slang alternatives again? And should we begin a campaign to eliminate the term of "hysterectomy" with its reminder of the male decision to call all women's problems "hysteria" since of course they all must originate in the womb (hystera). From there it was a small step to the decision that all her problems could be fixed by cutting it out.  A Uterectomy would be far better. I think I will start. The best description of this common surgical procedure is a uterectomy with a bilateral castration. 

Shelly