oophorectomy

Vaginal hysterectomy with abdominal ovariotomy. Canada Lancet 1889;22:6.

On the question of treatment, Hare observed that, by the second half of the nineteenth century, "surgical and pharmacological methods of preventing ma sturbation were certainly widespread," mentioning depressant drugs and chastity devices for both sexes; infibulation of the foreskin, castration and severing the dorsal nerve of the penis in males; and clitoridectomy and ovariotomy in females.

Its treatment was equally serious and at times barbaric, ranging from recommendations for healthful distraction and athletic exhaustion all the way to genital surgery, ovariotomy, and metal underwear.

The nearby French discovered an Egyptian shield: they showed it to the world's greatest doctor, inventor of the ovariotomy. The world's greatest tenor sang two thousand notes in an auditorium two thousand meters around: he got paid two million and gave it to the Pasteur Institute.

Ephraim McDowell, who practiced in Kentucky, performed the first ovariotomy on record in 1808.

Other minor factors evaluated were tubal recanalisation and other abdominopelvic surgeries like ovariotomy and appendicectomy, but none showed significant correlation probably due to the limited number of cases in the study population.

Robert Battey, a young Georgia surgeon, for instance, lent his name to the so-called "normal ovariotomy." With no apparent misgivings he removed women's healthy ovaries to relieve symptoms ranging from hysteria an neurasthenia to backache.