Sheryl Massip, Female Depression

Sheryl Massip and her deceased son, Michael, were both victims of her postpartum psychosis when, on her birthday, April 29, 1987, she performed acts that led to his death. They were victims of her psyschosis, which is now being linked by researchers to the presence of a mood disorder gene such as manic-depression, triggered by the sudden lowering of estrogen levels by the delivery of the placenta. Estrogen is a powerful mood elevator and when levels drop after birth, total hysterectomy and menopause, the result can be crippling depression, insanity and suicide. I also agree with the testimony of three experts that she was temporarily insane.

I learned this through my own experience following removal of my healthy ovaries. Like Sheryl, I went to my doctor telling him my depression was crippling me and I was suicidal. Like Sheryl, I was told it was all in my head and sent on my way without treatment. After seeing other doctors with the same result, I was taken to a county psychiatric facility for a suicide watch and there met with the same discounting attitude and lack of treatment.

Sheryl tried to communicate her illness to many people, family, friends and her doctor. It was not understood because we, unlike England, Ireland and Japan, do not want to take this condition seriously. Our national medical policy toward women needs a complete overhaul as demonstrated by the number of unnecessary hysterectomies and Caesarean sections performed each year, in contrast to England’s conservative approach toward removing and tampering with vital female organs.

I beg readers to have more compassion but even more important than that, to read books such as Dr. Katharina Dalton’s “Depression After Delivery” and “Hysterectomy: Before and After” by Dr. Winnifred Cutler. Once informed, they may avoid my near-tragedy and even hear a mother’s plea and save a baby’s life.

JAN KNOWLTON

Society for Hysterectomy Education

Anaheim