When is it morally OK for a woman to get a hysterectomy?

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Should the uterus present a medical threat to the mother it may be removed with no more hesitation than the gall bladder. It’s “noble purpose” at that point is not a relevant factor.

If the motivation to remove the uterus is to prevent future pregnancy, that is a moral problem.
 
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I think you need to do some serious research into this surgery. In your posts you seem to think that it’s just about getting the uterus removed but it can have serious side effects. Even if the ovaries are left, there can be a huge drop in oestrogen which is essential to protect the heart, bone density etc. Women will also likely experience the usual menopausal symptoms. Of course women can take HRT but that comes with its own risks.

It’s not an option I would be considering at your wife’s age unless there were other gynaelogical issues which hadn’t responded to less invasive treatment
 
Moneyball said:
So is the removal of the damaged uterus. The child inside the uterus is not the target.
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I didn’t realize that was the scenario in comparison. It’s not a medical scenario I’ve heard of. But a medical procedure on the mother’s body (directed at her body) necessary to save her life would generally be licit despite the adverse and unintended consequences to the unborn.
 
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It is capable of carrying life but from a health perspective it isn’t placed in a special category by the church. This is exactly why even if it’s “just” to treat acne or migraines, you can take birth control pills that render you infertile. It doesn’t matter if you can’t get pregnant now or ever again, if sterilization isn’t the reason you are taking the abc, or having the hysterectomy, etc. it truly isn’t special from a health perspective. Heavy periods, fibroids, tons of scar tissue, adhesions, too thin, prolapse, etc etc are all perfectly valid reasons to have a hysterectomy.
 
Well, I was going to look up and paste documents concerning health problems like cancer, fibroids, whatever but it turns out that no longer being suitable for life due to damage is a valid reason for a hysterectomy, according to the Holy See.

[00014-FR.01] [Texte original: Italien]

Traduzione in lingua inglese

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Response to a question
on the liceity of a hysterectomy in certain cases

On July 31, 1993, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith published Responses to Questions Proposed Concerning “Uterine Isolation” and Related Matters . These responses, which retain all of their validity, consider the removal of the uterus to be morally licit when there is a grave and present danger to the life or health of the mother, and hold as illicit, insofar as they are methods of direct sterilization, the removal of the uterus and tubal ligation ( uterine isolation ) with the intention of making impossible an eventual pregnancy which can pose some risk for the mother.

In recent years some very specific cases have been submitted to the Holy See also concerning the hysterectomy, which, however, present a different issue from that which was examined in 1993, because they regard situations in which procreation is no longer possible. The question and the response, accompanied by an Illustrative Note, that are now being published refer to this new particular case and complete the responses given in 1993.

Question : When the uterus is found to be irreversibly in such a state that it is no longer suitable for procreation and medical experts have reached the certainty that an eventual pregnancy will bring about a spontaneous abortion before the fetus is able to arrive at a viable state, is it licit to remove it ( hysterectomy )?

Response : Yes, because it does not regard sterilization.

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2019/01/03/0005/00014.html
 
I’m not sure what you are saying. I wasn’t implying that at all. I’m saying if you are taking it for a health concern, then it is ok if a side effect is infertility…
 
1ke said:
Trishie, we don’t always see things from the mother’s point of view. St Gianna chose what she knew was nearly a certain outcome in order to deliver her 4th child. She left a widower and her 4 children, and some may criticize her for it.
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And also not from the children’s point of view and the damage to their lives. Most of us suffered lasting damage.
Only children who early lose their mother are qualified to comment, or professionals who have had experience.
My mother certainly didn’t ‘try” for another child.
And in those days hysterectomy was much more invasive, and she feared not being able to do her job as mother during such a long recovery period. She had always been subject to the only Catholic permitted birth control, Rhythm, which clearly was inadequate. The only other option for any still young husband would be permanent celibacy. This is also the choice for the man above.

Clearly I continue to hold the hurt, because though knowing your balanced style, I felt your post to be somewhat judgemental, and find the disregard of the outcome of a mother’s loss to her children to be of little matter, since the only reference is to consideration of the mother. If she dies, she’s out of it at least, but the kids, never. I could endlessly give example of the harm to my siblings.
 
1ke said:
I’m sorry that you lost your mother. Im not sure why she made the choice not to have a hysterectomy or to try to have another child.
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I too was wondering why you described her actions as “to try to have another child”?
 
She didn’t, @Rau.
She cried a lot after she knew she was pregnant.
One time, two months before she died, she was crying on her bed, and I went into the bedroom and burst into tears. She stopped, and held out her hand! “What’s the matter, darling?”
“Mum, I”m never going to get married or have children.” She tried to comfort me.

The undue pressure led to a clot. I remember her in the kitchen with intense pain in her groin. The doctor missed that she had a clot. Soon she died of pulmonary embolism, the clot had reached a fatal place. That was the day she had the miscarriage. The little ones were with the neighbour. Anything made her feel sick so I brought in ice chips for her dry mouth.

When I came in her little hands were on the sheet, her colour terrible. I stopped at the door horrified at her colour. She looked as if she was dead. As if she felt my shock she opened her eyes. “It’s alright darling, I’m only resting.” I called the ambulance, and went into her. I ignore the nurse when she suggested I leave because Mum get her hair was messy, so I combed it as they attended to her.

She gave me some money for a taxi home but I wanted to save her the money and ran all the way home to wash everything and to do housework and get ready for the kids. I was so busy that after the little ones were fed, bathed, and in bed, I suddenly realised it was late for two of my sisters arriving home from visiting Mum. Then the front door rang. It was the doctor with my sister clinging to his arms. “Your mother isn’t coming home” he said.
 
Then my Dad arrived home. His government job sometimes took him away for a few days. “IMum had said to me, before she said her last words I ever heard her say, “goodbye darling”, “Tell Dad I will be alright, I’ll be home on Monday”
He had a big bag of oranges he’d bought at a wayside farm, and his bag. His wife wasn’t there with lipstick and a nice dress to welcome him, only me, having to tell him.

I didn’t know two of my little brothers heard Mum had died and had that news Un-comforted all night, and next morning my littlest sister screamed out, ‘Mummy’s dead” I ran into the room to hug her.
I cried every night for Dad and the little kids

I had just started work after school graduation, and kid go into the city as his department building was near my work. His silent devastation continue. The night of Mum’s funeral Dad was bring his tea cup out to the kitchen and I saw Dad wasn’t in his eyes. He wasn’t there. By next morning her had pneumonia. He hadn’t even a cold, he got to the point of eyes glazing. My eldest sister a nurse kept saying, “Dad you have to keep going for the kids.” Dad then was Ill with pleuracy. In his physical exhaustion he cried w hen he couldn’t attend a sports event for one of my brothers.
 
On the way to work tears would silently slip down my cheeks, Dad felt like a devastated desert, even though he was trying is best for the kids. And yes, pacing up and down is a real thing. When he got his three weeks vacation he did that a lot of the time. A year later he broke his clinical at a department staff cricket game The manager of the girls in the department lived in a suburb further out offered to drive him to and from work. Cars were only manual then. Dad never realised that women found him fascinating. He was a quiet humble man. She did of course. He thought she might be a capable mother. He was still grieving.

She was older, never married, no children, nephews n nieces were in awe of her. She was in many ways a fine person. After marriage she wanted to adopt the two youngest as their mother The little boy my youngest brother said to Dad, “what about Mummy?” So it didn’t happen, but the attitude towards the others showed, damage to to two next older boys, hurt to all.

I tried to help in the many ways I used to help Mum. Everything I did drew criticism. Even the way I cut beans was wrong. I left home without fuss and without giving reasons. The two sisters younger than me also did. It was the sixties and we married two early, too young. Two of those marriages ended in divorce and annulment. Mine came close many times for the first 25 years. Two of my brothers left home far too young, two began drinking too much, one stopped, the other later died in a fiery single car crash at 12.30 am after drinking too much blue label whisky. He’d stopped drinking for a few years but his wife left, so back to drink. When we girls escaped, they lost too much also. After I married, this brother put himself arms around my waster and said sadly” I wish you girls hadn’t left home” worst, they’d ask for me from very young if Mum asked, “who do you want to put you to bed, “ Trishie “ they’d reply. That day I realised they’d lost more than their mum

For years I only cried if I did, for my siblings,
But then one day iI looked around at my three little boys and knew they would never know my Mum, and that I was never able to have an adult chat or a cup of tea with her. I cried on and off for three days, because I’d lost my Mum, and shouldn’t have to have done.

I’m 73 years old and have had tears running down my face as I write

So if you are talking about the life of a mother who is in danger of dying, think also about her husband and her children, each child. I cannot doubt that a compassionate God could. Most of us aren’t saints and never likely to be even if they tried as hard and as long as I did, from a young child.
 
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Trishie said:
felt your post to be somewhat judgemental, and find the disregard of the outcome of a mother’s loss to her children to be of little matter, since the only reference is to consideration of the mother.
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I am sorry if I hurt you, that wasn’t my intention.

I wasn’t disregarding the husband or children’s loss— those are obvious and lasting. I was adding to the conversation focusing on the less obvious reasons a mother may have done what she did, and gave an example of a woman we call a Saint for her heroic virtue but who is not without the controversy of leaving behind her children.
 
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There is often a legitimate medical reason for a woman to need a hysterectomy. She can get a fibroid tumor in her uterus that causes her to bleed constantly and excessively, causing anemia and blood loss that can become life-threatening and require a transfusion. That happened to me. I hemorrhaged nonstop for days, even weeks at a time, and had to have surgery to put an end to it. My blood counts kept getting lower and lower, and the surgeon refused to operate unless I agreed to being transfused. In cases like that, it’s certainly not a sin to have a hysterectomy. That’s taking care of yourself.
 
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I thought the question had to do with the removal after childbirth? I cannot imagine it being ok now, just because your wife is experiencing a high risk pregnancy. I hope I missed something in the discussion.
 
Your words were just a trigger I guess. I know you’re a great person, from your posts over the years. And in any case, generally we only know others truths in a general way. Individual stories can sometimes bring greater reality to something in general.
The OP’ s post does in fact relate to a personal danger to his wife, and in such a case either a husband uses birth control, of natural means, as my mother did and it failed, or an unCatholic birth control, with has also a chance of failure, or his wife has a hysterectomy, or he remains celibate as long as she lives. The Church will not block an honest medically required hysterectomy, the basic answer. Not looking up Encyclicals as it’s awkward on iPad, and live too much to do getting ready to fly down to see my granddaughter who has had her spine fused from top to bottom, which might explain a little of my emotional fragility today. The particular line the Rau also noticed was one of a couple of things that hurt.

Again, I have a high regard for you, built up over eleven + years.
As they say, it’s not about you, it’s about me 🤭
 
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