Is it okay to follow my doctors advice?

[Leisa]

My doctor wants me to undergo a procedure called an oblation (I spelled it like it sounds). This burns the lining of the uterus. It will stop my menstration (which goes on for months if not stopped with high levels of medication). If this procedure can’t be done a hysterectomy is on the horizon. I am 41 years old. One other option is high doses of birth control pills, I don’t like the way they make me feel. What is my options that are okay with the church? Can I go with the oblation/hysterectomy or pills? I need advise. By the way I am married with no children, haven’t been able to have them.

 

[Jim_Blackburn]

You can follow your doctor’s advice. Legitimate medical procedures and medications necessary for healing the body are not at odds with Church teaching. In his encyclical Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI stated: “[T]he Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever” (HV 15).