Why I Don’t Have Children
Celebrate Life · Health and Wellbeing · Men & Womens Health

Why I Don’t Have Children

Looking for the Light

I don’t think I’ve shared this before, it’s deeply personal. I hope this post will encourage women to learn about Cervical Cancer and keep their annual exam appointments.

I was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer when I was 28 years old. My doctor did a procedure in the office but it did not work, the cancer had spread and I needed a complete hysterectomy. Oddly enough I didn’t react to not being able to have children. I made the decision at 12 years old that children were not in my future.

In 2020, the latest year for which incidence data are available, in the United States, 11,542 new cases of Cervical cancer were reported among women, and 4,272 women died of this cancer. For every 100,000 women, 7 new Cervical cancer cases were reported and 2 women died of this cancer according to the CDC. The data is four years old, and the statistics will be higher in 2024.

The numbers may seem low but if one of the deaths is your’s, the numbers don’t matter.

The doctor asked if my mother or grandmother had a hysterectomy. Both had Ovarian Cancer which increased my chances of getting Ovarian Cancer.

He suggested I have a total hysterectomy, I thought for a few minutes and decided to have a total hysterectomy. I didn’t want to take any chances.

I made the right decision for me. Not every woman wants kids, It’s you and only you that can make the decision.

If the family pressures you to have children, which many parents do, REMEMBER it’s your decision. Set strong boundaries with family and friends by saying you do not want to hear or talk about children, it’s a personal decision and only discussed between the wife and her husband. It’s not their place to pressure you.

Cervical Cancer is sneaky, you don’t know you have it. That is one reason for the yearly PAP exams.

Please read up on the symptoms related to Ovarian and Cervical Cancer. The key is to catch cancer in the early stages. If so, you may not have to have a hysterectomy.

Melinda

References:

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/cervical/statistics/

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6 thoughts on “Why I Don’t Have Children”

    1. Thank you. That thought came to mind, I can’t remember the last time it did. I kept thinking it’s to personal and thought well I’ve already told so much. I hope it helps somebody. It’s sad when a woman can’t have children and they have counted on getting preggers.
      :)

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  3. I appreciate your self-disclosure. In my late twenties I had a cervical cancer discovered in a routine Pap. Apparently so much of it was removed that one gynecologist told me that it would interfere with my ability to have kids. For me I could have been a good mother but only late in life when I was already too old. I had 20 years of weekly therapy by then which would have made me a better candidate for motherhood. I decided it just wasn’t in the cards for me.

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