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Reflection

The purpose of this website is to present medical research, doctors’ perspectives, and women’s experiences on the surgical procedure called D&C. Throughout time, change and evolution are propelled by continual reexamination of the benefits and risks of current practices. Currently, there is a movement toward less invasive surgical procedures. This movement is driven by patients, their doctors, their employers and their insurance companies, because of less risk, faster recovery and less cost.  In addition, many less invasive gynecological procedures also preserve a woman’s fertility and reproductive health.

After personal experiences with a single suction D&C for retained placental fragments following the birth of my only child (an operation which caused severe Asherman’s Syndrome with 75% of my uterus full of dense adhesions, leaving me amenorrheic with severe cyclical pain and infertile), I have spent hours each day, researching the surgery and my acquired medical condition. Through the information on this website, I would like to help prevent what has happened to me from happening to other women by offering educational resources that I fervently searched for, but were not available to me at the time of need.

Through the information on this website, I hope that a vehicle for change will be propelled to bring about the following:

• Women will respond by asking for alternatives to D&C.
• Doctors will respond by offering alternatives, such as: expectant management, medical management or hysteroscopy for retained placental fragments and miscarriages, and hysteroscopy for polyps and ectopic pregnancies.
• Doctors will have access to and use ultrasound, which will be utilized pre-operatively, intra-operatively and/or post-operatively as indicated.
• Doctors will gain training in more highly skilled and less traumatic visualized procedures, such as hysteroscopy.
• The larger medical community will respond by supporting training and providing necessary equipment, such as: ultrasound and hysteroscopy equipment.
• Women will be warned of the true risks and alternatives of a D&C, especially during the postpartum time or following a miscarriage, so that the risk to their fertility is lessened.   
• The larger medical community will respond by utilizing prophylactic treatments to prevent scarring, such as estrogen therapy and/or the use of intrauterine balloon splint placement following curettage in high risk patients. 
• Women will become informed of the warning signs which may indicate a post D&C complication, so that she can seek immediate medical treatment.