ABSTRACT
The twentieth century has seen an abundance of pseudoscientific publications discussing female sexuality. In the confusion, sexual function has been mistaken for sexual identity. The two are quite separate but are integral components of female sexuality. A third factor, the couple relationship, may have an additional impact on a woman’s expectation of her sexuality after hysterectomy. It is not surprising, therefore, that attempts to elucidate the association between hysterectomy and sexuality have produced contradictory and occasionally alarmist conclusions. Are we still suffering from the vestiges of ancient beliefs and nineteenth century attitudes to the ‘womb’ as the seat of femininity and the root of ‘hysteria’? In this chapter, we review studies examining the relationship between different methods of hysterectomy and sexual functioning.
