Frustrated by the medical system, she decided to create a web site where women can exchange health information.
Michelle King Robson believes she is one of the thousands of American women who receive an unnecessary hysterectomy each year. In 2001, Robson, now 49, underwent the surgery in her hometown of Phoenix to cure endometriosis, a sometimes painful ailment in which the lining of the uterus grows outside that organ. “But I question if I ever had the condition,” she says. Even worse: The operation that was supposed to put an end to her fatigue and severe bloating actually sent her health into a downward spiral. And yet her crisis ultimately gave Robson a new purpose in life—helping other women take control of their medical care.After her uterus and ovaries were removed, Robson went into menopause almost overnight. “I tanked beyond control,” she recalls. “I gained too much weight to fit into my clothes, experienced hot flashes, and had joint pain. One of the worst side effects was that my short-term memory was gone. I couldn’t remember the ending of a movie an hour later. I was afraid this was the onset of Alzheimer’s.”
For a year, Robson went from one health practitioner to another—including a naturopath, a pharmacist who tailor-made hormones and a psychiatrist who prescribed antidepressants. But, she says, “I felt worse and worse.” One doctor made a strong impression. “He was very honest. He said, ‘I don’t know how to help you, but I know you’re going to figure this out. And when you do, you're going to share it with me so I can help my other female patients.’”
Regaining Control
This was a turning point for Robson: “I felt like the doctor gave me permission to
advocate for myself. I started on my own journey to get better.” She picked up all the books she could find on hysterectomies and hormones. “Reading them while I had no brain function was really hard,” she jokes.
And then a close friend gave her the book Screaming to be Heard: Hormonal Connections Women Suspect, and Doctors Still Ignore, by Elizabeth Lee Vliet, MD, director of a women’s health center in Tucson, Arizona. (This book is written for women and their doctors, but Vliet has written a more patient-friendly tome called
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