Ask Dr. Marie

I can vividly remember my gynecologist warning me to keep wearing a seat belt during the last few months of my second pregnancy despite my rapidly expanding belly and my instinctive fear the seat belt may do more harm to my baby than good. I was pregnant with twins at the time so you can imagine how huge my belly was. And my yet to be born sons seemed to be competing for a forward position in my uterus so all my extra weight and size was jutting out in front! So the idea of strapping on a seat belt around my belly was a bit frightening. But I did as told, and positioned the belt down below my belly and in front of my hips whenever I sat behind the wheel of my car. Leaving maternal instincts aside, this is the safest thing to do both for you and your baby.

Far too many women, even young women, have their perfectly healthy ovaries removed at the time of a hysterectomy. Doctors have long recommended this to prevent ovarian cancer later in life. Although many doctors claim that this practice rarely happens today, the statistics say other wise. Of the 600,000 hysterectomies each year for non-cancerous causes, half of all women have their ovaries removed at the same time – and many of these women have many years to go before menopause.