How Donald Trump helped me get a hysterectomy.
I have written about the topic of my troublesome uterus in my blog post from 11/2/24, so go check that out to get the full backstory of my health concerns and how they are connected to scary political decisions. To briefly review, it centers around:
Having uterine fibroids and being told by a doctor in 2018 to bring any symptoms to her because I would eventually need a hysterectomy due to the severity of the issue.
My doctor moving away and symptoms appearing.
Being gaslit by a new doctor that my symptoms were not concerning and my questions weren’t worth answering.
Prioritizing your health is not for the meek or unquestioning, and that is what I had to work past to get the care I needed. Here I will tell you how I found my voice in this process, and yes Donald Trump helped me find my voice.
After being gaslit about my symptoms, I cut ties with my local hospital system and moved to a provider in Louisville (out of state and an hour away.) They listened to me and gave me an ultrasound to see what was going on. They found four large fibroids and said to look out for symptoms (never defining what those symptoms were.) So I spent the next year and a half looking out for the same symptoms I had in 2018 with my first fibroid. Those symptoms didn’t come, but I was having persistent hip and back pain and a sense of pressure in the area of my uterus. I brought up these issues with everyone I spoke to at every appointment, but they were not worrying enough to warrant more investigation.
On Election Day 2024, Trump tallied the most votes in the Presidential election. With congress being led by conservatives focused on Project 2025, I feared that everything concerning women’s health, including birth control, could be slated for erasure. The fear that Donald Trump’s victory lit within me turned to action, and I scheduled an appointment with a surgeon to learn about my options for a more permanent birth control. I mentioned in my appointment request that in 2018 I was told I would eventually need a hysterectomy, and that I wanted answers as to when that would need to happen. So the surgeon scheduled an ultrasound to check on the state of my fibroids and my uterus.
A month later while in a conversation with the surgeon, she said an IUD may not be an option because my uterus was too large. I had never been told I had a large uterus, and that stuck in my mind as she continued. When she asked if I had questions, I raised concern because I had never been told that my uterus was large before. I then asked her to compare today’s ultrasound results to the ultrasound from a year and a half ago to see if there were changes in my uterus size and fibroids. She agreed that was a good idea, and she left the room to get a copy of the results of the previous ultrasound. When she returned, holding both pieces of paper with results, she said, “You need a hysterectomy.” My uterus had grown from 200 cubic centimeters to 300 cubic centimeters and my fibroids had doubled in size since the last ultrasound. The fibroids were making my uterus grow, and they would continue to grow if left unchecked for another 8-10 years. My uterus was already the size of someone who was 12 weeks pregnant, and it had to go. In further discussion the doctor confirmed that the symptoms (pressure, and back/hip pain) I was having for years were likely symptoms of this issue. She even asserted that my previous provider should have scheduled me for annual ultrasounds to monitor in 2018. I was relieved to have answers and a solution once I scheduled the surgery.
I had the surgery on February 12th. My uterus and fallopian tubes were removed, and the surgeon also found a cluster of blood vessels that were also likely contributing to my discomfort. I kept my ovaries so that I continue to have a source of hormones and won’t slip immediately into menopause. Recovery is going well and I am almost functioning as normal a month after surgery. My energy does deplete more quickly than normal as I continue to heal, and I may need some physical therapy to get back to normal.
For those that know me, you know that I am a fairly mild person. For as much as I don’t trust authority, I respect it and pick my battles. In the past I have been the kind of person who trusts healthcare professionals to know what questions should be asked or concerns that should be raised. Not any more. I am getting better at being more assertive to get answers as this story has shown, but still I don’t think I would have requested a meeting with the surgeon if Trump hadn’t won the election. I am not thanking him, but I am acknowledging that we are all experiencing a cultural pendulum swing. The pendulum is always in motion, but this swing is severe and unwieldy. We have the power to stop the momentum, but it requires action. That means we have to approach problems with the kind of momentum that is being dealt, and that can feel a bit reckless, untethered, or even uncomfortable. We have to consider that if we don’t, we are contributing to the momentum in progress. In this case the momentum made me act to get answers to my own problem. That is proof that it is possible. Now I have a handle on my health, I am looking at how to oppose momentum for the problems that are facing everyone.
In my rest during recovery I have been thinking about what else I will be pushing back on as the pendulum is still in motion. What counter balance do I strike to make progress to impede the progress of the terrible things I see happening in our country? I am sure a lot of people are asking this same question. I find lists to be productive ways for me to organize my mind around what is possible, so here is my list:
Jane Stormer, 2025
Possible future postcard?
Continue making art that impacts the pendulum swing. This means making art that comforts the oppressed and makes oppressors think more deeply about the issues at hand. It also means lifting up voices that are being silenced and making visible all the things that are being erased. I have plans for more postcards that people can send to their representatives and some other projects that I am not mentioning publicly yet! You can see some of my most recent work in the new Graphic Design section of this website! Here is a teaser to the left!
Make my voice and the voices of others heard. Go to protests, call congressional representatives, and get people registered to vote. Protest is protected by the constitution, especially political protest. The ACLU has some guidelines for how to keep protests legal, so go check them out if you want to learn more about your rights. Also, I want to up my consistence in calling my representatives. I have found the website 5calls.org to be helpful in organizing the topics to raise concern about, offering you the contact numbers for officials, and even giving you a concise script so that the voicemail doesn’t time out before you are finished. 5calls also lets you indicate that you have made contact and tallies the outreach so we can see how we have all contributed to millions of individual messages. The loudest message that any of us can give is casting a vote, so I am looking into extending my voter registration efforts to a year-round schedule.
Talk more about women’s health. Uteruses are a taboo topic and the silence surrounding it seems to seep into medical research and care. As soon as I started telling friends and family about my upcoming surgery, almost everyone had a story to tell about their own experiences. All of the experiences I heard were unique, but there were recurring themes about a lack of research, solutions, and urgency. Young women with fibroids who may need or want hysterectomies are often deterred from the procedure because they may still be fertile despite the risks. It is important to know that hysterectomy’s are the second most common surgery among women*, and that 70- 80% of women will have fibroids by the age of 50**. Studies show that Black women are affected by uterine fibroids more than any other group***. This last fact was shared with me by the current Indiana Poet Laureate, Curtis Crisler. He brought up the struggles of women’s’ health in one of his poems at a recent poetry reading and spoke more on the topic in his Q&A session. We can do better, like Curtis, and talk about women’s health! (poem image below)
Curtis Crisler, Indiana Poet Lauriate, …You bring out the woman in me…
This signed copy of his poem was gifted to me by Curtis at a Black History Month Event in Madison, Indiana in 2025. After the reading, he spoke of the meaning of the line “You you you reveal the surgical bikini scar of me” as a reference to the struggle of a woman in his life that was dealing with fibroids that led up to a hysterectomy. Curtis’s work often explores understanding identities and perspectives beyond his own, and it seems like such a great example of doing intensive work to empathetically understand the challenges that others experience.
4. Ground yourself in the chaos. The chaos is intended to disrupt our lives to distract us. If we fall apart we are going to be too busy dealing with the symptoms of chaos to deal with the source of the chaos. We can’t fall into that trap, especially if we are privileged enough to not yet be feeling the direct impact of executive orders and DOGE actions. Make goals, meet them, and repeat.
*https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/hysterectomy
**https://www.ohsu.edu/womens-health/fibroids-more-common-you-think
