Gallery Carre
Why Do We Care?
Feb 12th, 2025 by Mikey Mongol
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, is having a hysterectomy.
She’s the wife of my future monarch, and as such I really sincerely wish her all the best. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder why we need to know this — and why it’s getting so much media attention.
Yes, Camilla is a celebrity, and so she’s going to draw attention. But would she be getting so much attention, I wonder, if she was having her appendix out? Is a hysterectomy in and of itself simply more sensationalistic, more newsworthy, more interesting than any other -ectomy? If it were some rare operation, or at least something less common — a splenectomy, for example — I would understand. But according to the CDC, over 30% of all women aged 60+ here in the States have had a hysterectomy.
I know sex sells, but — and if you read this, Camilla, please forgive me — a 60-year old woman not known primarily for her sex appeal having her uterus cut out might technically be sex-related, but one would hardly call it sexy (except to a small and, in my happy experience, purely hypothetical portion of the population, natch).
So why do we care?
(image from Knitty)
In a majority of cases, surgeons prefer to cut out anything that’s no longer useful. A 60+ year-old woman has no need for her uterus, right? So the decision is: cut the damn thing out. Right.