Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book! Below is my honest review.

As someone who got their degree in sociology and anthropology (and took a class on medical anthropology), I found this book fascinating. How is it that society has existed for so long, yet women’s health is only now an emerging research topic? Going into the book, I knew a bit about the struggles of getting a hysterectomy via social media. So nothing in this book was particularly surprising to me. Except for the fact that some doctors suggest pregnancy as a cure. That was very wild for me to learn.

I think the author could have done more research and interviews on people who wanted an hysterectomy but don’t have a medical reason (aka they don’t want children). It mostly focuses on people who have endo, cysts, severe pain, or some other medical reason AND people who are transgender/nonbinary/etc. who are doing it for gender affirming care (but a lot of them also have some sort of medical reason).

I also think some perspectives from medical experts in the field or even researchers would have strengthened her argument. For example, since hysterectomies are so common and relatively safe, what are doctors learning in medical school that makes them hesitate to perform this kind of surgery? Is it the way they’re taught or is it a social thing?

Either way, I think this book was really fascinating to read. It’s also 200 ish pages, so it’s a relatively short read.

We often think of surgery as an uncommon or emergency occurrence - an appendix here, a gallbladder there, a small scar and an occasional reminder of "oh yeah that one time...". For women and AFAB individuals, though, there is one surgery about one in five will experience by their sixties, and which is the most common gynecological surgery worldwide: the hysterectomy. Often performed, but seldom discussed - especially in terms of the cultural, societal, intimate, and ethical impact it has on patients and their families - the hysterectomy remains a cornerstone (and, paradoxically, a precarious tipping point) of female reproductive health.

Weaving together history and personal interviews with 100 patients over the course of their reproductive health journeys, Andrea Becker compiles a tapestry of the ways in which America’s healthcare system routinely deprives people of the ability to control their own bodies, especially along race and gender lines. Through qualitative first-person narratives with women, trans men, and non-binary individuals, Becker reveals the often unequal push and pull of reproductive rights and the bias which shapes one's experience with the healthcare system in this country.

As someone who has been deeply disturbed by recent shifts in healthcare policy in the country - especially in the reproductive health realm - this book was a really well-timed and poignant reminder of what we have to lose with restricted access to not just life-saving, but life-affirming and life-improving procedures. I loved the author's tour through various aspects of hysterectomy history and its unequal application, affirmed with voices of patients across time and identity, and really appreciated the nuanced perspectives both parties brought to the discussion of hysterectomies and gender-affirming care. I also learned a lot about the unequal access to hysterectomy across ae, race, gender, and socioeconomic lines - I knew about these divides in abstract, but the deeper investigation by Becker here was really insightful and would definitely be a great perspective for those who care for women and AFAB patients across the board.

I think this book would be a great primer for those who would like to hear first-hand from patients about their experiences with female reproductive care - many of the stories stayed with me as food for thought and the things I've learned will stay with me even through my practice is not directly related to female reproductive health. This is the kind of book I wish was around when I was a medical student as required reading and discussion as part of an OB/GYN and/or medical ethics course as well - there is a lot of great baseline information as well as deeper topics that I think would be great for practitioners to consider for their patients (at least 50% of whom will be AFAB across most specialties) in a whole-picture view. I also would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in women's reproductive health and its intersectional topics - race, gender, socioeconomic lines, and more - and hope it inspires readers to think (and vote) with a critical eye towards protected, expanded, and equitable healthcare access in their communities.

An examination of hysterectomies that encompasses how people think about them and what it means for hysterectomies to be a choice. This book will validate plenty of people’s feelings about this minimally invasive medical procedure.

All in all, this was a fantastic read, combining historical and factual information with an abundance of personal anecdotes of people having gone through a hysterectomy.

It starts with laying out hysterectomies and women's health throughout history. Bringing together both the life-improving aspects of Gynecology as well as its dark aspects in racism and the untold damage done to unwilling women subject to facilitating its progress.

The following parts are defined through the personal experiences of women, trans men, and non-binary people who have or are seeking out hysterectomies . It lays out why people choose to have their uteruses removed, how their race, gender, and age influence if and how easily they can undergo the procedure, how different their feeling are after having gone through with it and the challenges of navigating a hostile healthcare environment.

The book heavily centers the people and their experiences as well as their emotions, which I enjoyed greatly. It helped underline the various arguments made perfectly. Additionally, having a large number of trans men and non-binary people involved brought out an often overlooked aspect of undergoing the procedure as part of gender-affirming care.

What I personally missed in a book talking about hyterectomies were the stories of women wanting a hyterectomie not because of uterus related health issues, such as endometriosis, but as a means of sterilization. This group might not be as big as the other two, but it felt weirdly absent. The book makes on multiple occasions the point that a lot of women are discouraged or barred from getting hysterectomies, due to them not being able to get Pregnant anymore. So not having the viewpoint of women seeking the procedure for this exact reason was strange.
The other group, which was missing but mentioned, was women who were sterilized against their will. I would have loved to also get some personal insight, if possible, into these two groups.

Overall, I would highly recommend reading the novel. The writing was easy to follow and understand. The various personal anecdotes and feelings involved throughout the text added a great emotional impact and deeper connection to the issues presented.

Thanks to NetGalley and NYU Press for the eARC!

I wish the entire book had been written as well as the Introduction was. I think Becker has the foundation for a truly excellent book, but I didn't think she used her interviews to the fullest extent.
Don't get me wrong, I think this book is still really helpful, especially for people considering a hysterectomy. It felt a little unfinished, but is still an interesting and timely read.

Such an informative look at the politics of hysterectomy! I loved how accessible the writing was- there was never a moment where I was confused or had to stop and search something up. There were so many interesting talking points or things I hadn't considered, and I definitely credit this book with the expansion of my understanding of hysterectomies!

Super informative while still being entertaining. Would recommend to most people, you get a lot out of this read.

Loved this! Really insightful look into the procedure and the history of racism, sexism, and ableism behind it. Would have liked a perspective from someone not looking to get a hysterectomy for medical reasons, but other than that, I thought it read really well and presented the facts in a straightforward fashion. A must read!

**Book Review:**
*Get It Out* is a powerful, necessary interrogation of one of the most common yet least discussed surgeries performed on people with uteruses: the hysterectomy. Andréa Becker masterfully blends medical history, cultural critique, and personal testimony from a diverse group of over 100 individuals—including women, trans men, and nonbinary people—to expose the deep inequities embedded in reproductive healthcare. Through this intersectional lens, Becker reveals a troubling pattern of control, coercion, and gatekeeping that disproportionately affects marginalized communities. Both urgent and eye-opening, *Get It Out* challenges readers to reconsider what bodily autonomy really means in a system where choice is too often a privilege, not a right. This is essential reading for anyone interested in gender, medicine, and justice.

Wow wow wow… THIS! @anders_wo examines the unethical, racist, sexist, and transphobic history of violence within the field of gynecology in “Get It Out: The Politics of Hysterectomy”. What this book comes down to is choice. Hysterectomies are an ESSENTIAL part of healthcare for millions of folks with uteruses and help to preserve reproductive autonomy. However, they have also been used to further eugenics, specifically targeting Indigenous, Latine, and Black women. She further explores the coercive and exploitative practices that have shaped our modern contraceptive practices as well as reproductive healthcare in general. We cannot ignore the violent and traumatic history of reproductive healthcare and gynecology that served as the foundation of where we are today. It is no mystery why medical distrust is still so high.

What really stayed with me were the personal stories of folks sharing their wide array of experience. From gender-affirming care, to accessibility and stigma, this book captures the experiences of so many folks whose voices are otherwise silenced. Thank you for your amazing work @anders_wo 💕
This book is powerful and essential reading for EVERYONE!

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from NYU Press. All thoughts and reviews are honest and my own.

i have been getting into nonfiction literature lately, and i really enjoyed this book! thank you so much to the publisher for giving me this e-arc ♥️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a highly informative book on a very important topic, it brought up a few things that I hadn’t previously considered!

It's absolutely wild that the only other sociological study of hysterectomies is titled AM I STILL A WOMAN? Andréa Becker does a great job of bringing our understanding of the politics of hysterectomy into the modern age. I especially appreciate her balanced perspectives on the differing experiences of BIPOC folks, trans men, and nonbinary people seeking hysterectomies. And more than just sharing the horror stories, Becker offers advise to patients and hope for a better future.

This is a book about elective hysterectomy, “elective” requiring sufficient air quotes as to have its own shoe line. Less glibly, the book is about “elective” as a concept, using the medical procedure of a hysterectomy to understand the act of electing to have a medical procedure done: who decides, why, and what influences those decisions.

The answer is the usual suspects of race, gender, and class. What elevates it is, like the recent the recent Sanger/Dennett book, it cuts through the culture war tropes and routines…or at least provides the evidence for anyone so inclined to look at the question as a matter of facts on the ground rather than a contest of ideas.

Peeking at the other reviews, I am shocked to see people refer to it as repetitive. It is repetitive in a structural sense (i.e. a sociological study). It is a series of interviews with people who have had, want, or considered a hysterectomy. The notable feature here is the variation in the stories, inclusive of people who want one and cannot get it as well as people who did not want one but had it. It is the message of the book.

The answer is not uniform. Hysterectomy is not something that we can say that there need to be either more or less of in a categorical sense. Rather, the failure point is having systems around the procedure that act scientifically and respectfully; scientifically, because of the poor states of the research around the uterus and uterine problems in general, and respectfully in terms of decision-making that includes the patient in the process.

What then gives this book an applicability far in excess of this arguably limited conclusion is that the specific events create a sort of negative space to see culture itself. In the ongoing culture war, we (the U.S. we) tend to talk about things like gender, class, race, and reproduction in abstract terms, as if something like misogyny was a debate over theory and ideas. Here is the sausage of bigotry getting made. You can come to different conclusions, but you must reconcile with the facts here.

The strength is a weakness. It is the customary problem with an impassioned cry for nuance. Since the point is that there is not a point, not An Answer, it is easy to miss the forest for the trees.

Similarly, there are two topics that get extended consideration - fitting this into the grander question of what (if these were oligarchs) we would call biohacking and trying to negotiate the distinction in good and bad patient advocacy, since the distinction is not in the means, only in the ends. These are interesting questions, and stick with me. But the book is focused elsewhere.

It is not for everyone, but the kind of book that I wish everyone would read. Receiving the information here would do a lot for getting the facts right to have substantive discussions about big problems, as opposed to...whatever politics is now.

My thanks to the author, Andréa Becker, for writing the book, and to the publisher, NYU Press, for making the ARC available to me.

Very well researched and informative. An enjoyable but heavy read coming to terms with the reality of our history as women and the current struggles we face when it comes to our reproductive freedom. Definitely recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about hysterectomy!

Get It Out is a well-researched and thoughtfully nuanced exploration of the historical and cultural context for hysterectomy.

Andrea Becker uses the lens of medical sociology to deep dive the experience of seeking and having hysterectomies in today’s day and age. She pulls from extensive interviews with cis women and trans and non-binary folks as well as several other sources of quantitative and qualitative data.

I really loved how many stories of trans and non-binary people are featured throughout this book. Becker does a nice job of thoughtfully interweaving their narratives and offering a nuanced perspective on the challenges inherent to those who aren’t cis-women.

For anyone curious about the politics, history, and sociocultural context for hysterectomies, this is a solid read. There are a number of folks in my life who have struggled with endometriosis/adenomyosis or otherwise have had complicated relationships with their uterus and reproductive functioning - I will 100% be recommending this book to them!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and appreciated how readable and compelling the prose was on a topic that could have otherwise felt dry and clinical. This is a compassionate, clear, and well-researched deep dive into a topic that more people ought to know about.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher — I received an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Andréa Becker did a great job at the introduction looking into such a hard and complicated topic. Think this book leads us to a conversation we really need to have.

It’s really scary the judgement applied to this procedure when it’s not to save your life, when it’s “just” to help with your pain, etc (when no one would think like that towards going to the dentist to fill a cavity or get your wisdom teeth extracted for example) only because “you might want children one day” or even worse “have you thought about what your future husband will want??”, specially in a time when we can barely afford housing to begin with. I think medicine stopped only being a way to save people’s lives and started trying to improve the quality of life, and how this has not happened in the areas that only apply to women.

It’s crazy seeing the very different ways in which trans men and cis women were treated, how women’s pain it’s not seen as an important enough issue, even when it is completely ruining their lives.

It is also really interesting as a EU citizen seeing how the fully private and in a lot of cases highly inaccessible US medical system messes up with people’s heads.
Overall it vas really interesting and I really appreciate learning about all of the different perspectives, but all in all, it did feel a bit repetitive towards the end with how it talked about every single case that was studied.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc of the book.

I don't even know where to begin. This was easily one of the most insightful non-fiction reads I've ever consumed. I initially requested this book to gain more understanding and obtain "leverage" when preparing for my next medical appointment. However, I quickly found myself consumed by the stories shared and became angry at the medical system and it's continued abuse of women and the queer, non-binary, and trans communities. I was appalled to learn how these procedures and modern contraceptives came about and how they still affect these populations to this day, decades later. I was also disgusted to learn how often hysterectomies are recommended for people of color before more conservative methods are explored. I would highly recommend this to anyone with or without a uterus, who does or does not want a hysterectomy (or any associated surgery), or anyone interested in this area of public health. If I weren't so bad at math, I would consider getting my MPH to make a change in this area of women's health. As someone who wants this procedure to not only solve some medical issues, but also as a response to today's political climate, this was a must-read. I have not changed my stance on wanting this procedure, but I now have the knowledge to make more informed choices based on the stories and information shared. Overall, this is a very quick and easy-to-understand read that is essential to today's public health needs.

While this was a very informative and interesting read, I found myself feeling slightly annoyed at the mixing of genders and anatomical parts.
As a supporter of the LGTBQI community I understand that that not all females have female parts but I felt that the book should have focused more on body autonomy rather than minorities getting represented.

An incisive and informative look into a topic that is under dicussed and under researched. The first half is a little dense as facts are thrown out without much time given for reflection and absorption, I was, however, completely blown away by the second half.

Becker's writing as she weaves the stories of her subjects is taken with such care. By turns illuminating and heart wrenching. And she has taken great care to include the voices of BIPOC and Trans peoples. Some truly beautiful work and well worth the read, whether you own a uterus or not.