Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT: Hysterectomy among young women is being raised as a matter of concern by women's health advocates in India. This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in the state of Maharashtra, which attempts to understand the ways in which women overcome the barriers in accessing health services for reproductive morbidities, the reasons for accepting hysterectomy as ' the' treatment as well as the implications of hysterectomy on women's health. Total 44 in depth interviews were conducted with women, who had undergone hysterectomy and were below 45 years at the time of interview. Fear of cancer, failure of medical treatment, practical difficulties in living with reproductive health problems, fear mongering by the doctors and belief in the hysterectomy as the best treatment, these were some of the reasons for which women accepted hysterectomy. Most of these hysterectomies were conducted in private hospitals. The study indicates the need for further research for explicating the role of private health sector in medicalising different reproductive events occurring in the life of women.
KEYWORDS: Reproductive Health, Access, Hysterectomy, India, Fear of Cancer.
1 INTRODUCTION
Hysterectomy among young women is being raised as a matter of concern by women's health advocates in India. [1] Various news reports have highlighted the spate of hysterectomies in states like Andhra Pradesh, [2] Rajasthan, [3] Bihar [4] and Chhattisgarh. [5] Health insurance scheme was found to be one of the facilitators of this spate of hysterectomies in these states.
This issue of hysterectomy is as an illustration of women's access to reproductive health services. The studies looking at women's access to healthcare have highlighted several barriers faced by women in accessing health services such as cultural barriers, [6] financial barriers, [7] non-availability of health services and denial of permission from the family. [8] These barriers are evident from the fact that several women are still not able to access basic health services such as antenatal care or services for safe delivery. [9] Within this milieu of lack of access, one can see that interventions such as Caesarean sections, hysterectomies and Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) are also rising among certain sections of society. These interventions warrant further exploration to find out the ways in which they impact women's lives.
In India, though there...