Push to change ‘misogynistic’ name of one of the world’s most common surgeries

Sly Saint

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Have you had a tonsillectomy (your tonsils taken out), appendectomy (your appendix removed) or lumpectomy (removal of a lump from your breast)? The suffix “ectomy” denotes surgical removal of the named body part, so these terms give us a clear idea of what the procedure entails.
So why is the removal of the uterus called a hysterectomy and not a uterectomy?

The name hysterectomy is rooted in a mental health condition – “hysteria” – that was once believed to affect women. But we now know this condition doesn’t exist.

Continuing to call this significant operation a hysterectomy both perpetuates misogyny and hampers people’s understanding of what it is.

From the defunct condition ‘hysteria’​

Hysteria was a psychiatric condition first formally defined in the 5th century BCE. It had many symptoms, including excessive emotion, irritability, anxiety, breathlessness and fainting.

But hysteria was only diagnosed in women. Male physicians at the time claimed these symptoms were caused by a “wandering womb”. They believed the womb (uterus) moved around the body looking for sperm and disrupted other organs.
Because the uterus was blamed for hysteria, the treatment was to remove it. This procedure was called a hysterectomy. Sadly, many women had their healthy uterus unnecessarily removed and most died.

The word “hysteria” originally came from the ancient Greek word for uterus, “hystera”. But the modern Greek word for uterus is “mitra”, which is where words such as “endometrium” come from.

Hysteria was only removed as an official medical diagnosis in 1980. It was finally recognised that it does not exist and is sexist.

“Hysterectomy” should also be removed from medical terminology because it continues to link the uterus to hysteria.
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The word “hysteria” originally came from the ancient Greek word for uterus, “hystera”. But the modern Greek word for uterus is “mitra”, which is where words such as “endometrium” come from.
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Would «mitrectomy» be an appropriate name?
 
Sasha said:
I don't think the argument makes any sense. 'Hysterectomy' isn't 'rooted in' 'hysteria' - both words come independently from the ancient Greek word for 'womb'.
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«Hysterectomy» first came into use in the late 19th century (etymonline). «Uterus» was already in use in the 14th century (etymonline).

If they wanted a neutral word for the procedure, they would have gone for «Uterectomy». The doctors in the late 19th century would have been well aware of the connection to «hysteria».
 
Utsikt said:
The doctors in the late 19th century would have been well aware of the connection to «hysteria».
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In the way that a baker would be well aware of the connection between a Dundee cake and 'it's a piece of cake'. Language serves all sorts of purposes and etymology is never a good basis for arguing what the significance of words is. As in 'bucket list'.
 
Utsikt said:
«Hysterectomy» first came into use in the late 19th century (etymonline). «Uterus» was already in use in the 14th century (etymonline).

If they wanted a neutral word for the procedure, they would have gone for «Uterectomy». The doctors in the late 19th century would have been well aware of the connection to «hysteria».
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They'd have been well aware that the connection was the word for 'womb'. And they were looking to creating a word to mean 'removal of the womb'. I don't see anything pejorative about it. What is the negative implication supposed to be? That women have wombs?
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
In the way that a baker would be well aware of the connection between a Dundee cake and 'it's a piece of cake'. Language serves all sorts of purposes and etymology is never a good basis for arguing what the significance of words is. As in 'bucket list'.
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I’ve looked a bit further. According to this publication, there were no words containing «hyst-» used to describe the reproductive organs in medical literature in England up until and including the 18th century. The womb was called «womb», «matrix» or «mother». «Uterus» is also mentioned, but I don’t understand their categorisation there.

The first abdominal hysterectomy was performed in Manchester in 1843, but the Germans popularised the vaginal hysterectomy for cervical cancer in the 1870s. (That’s ignoring multiple accounts of partial of full hysterectomies by e.g. midwives centuries earlier).

The Germans referred to cervical cancer as Gebärmutterkrebs, translating literally to birth-mother-cancer. Gebärmutter means uterus/womb.

Somewhere along the lines, someone decided to use «hysterectomy» instead of «uterectomy».

It might simply be because «-ectomy» is Greek so they went with the Greek root, but it’s not too uncommon to combine Latin and Greek (tonsillectomy, postsynaptic, psychosocial, neonate, neurotransmitter, liposuction, hyperextension, dysfunction, chloroform, and claustrophobia are examples of medical hybrid words).

Seeing as «hyster» was pretty much only used in the context of «hysteria» or related conditions at the time, it could be argued that it was at least poor taste to use the root that was so loaded.

PS. I did find a reference to «balsamum hystericum» in an old English text about midwifery that exclusively used mother, womb or uterus(-ish). A Norwegian encyclopedia links it to this concept (from Wikipedia)
Globus pharyngeus (also termed globus sensation) is the persistent but painless sensation of having a pill, food bolus, or some other sort of obstruction in the throat when there is none. [added: also named globus hystericus, which combines Latin and Greek.]
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Sasha said:
They'd have been well aware that the connection was the word for 'womb'. And they were looking to creating a word to mean 'removal of the womb'. I don't see anything pejorative about it. What is the negative implication supposed to be? That women have wombs?
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So to answer this: «hyster» (or derived terms) wasn’t used to describe the womb at the point in time in question. They used uterus or womb (or mother-related words in German). I think it can be argued that if they wanted something that made sense with the terminology at the time, they could have gone for «uterectomy».
 
So there are wars breaking out and people going hungry and we're in the middle of a slow moving environmental catastrophe, and people are worried about this?

Except of course they're not, because it's just absurd clickbait.
 
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