Senator says she was never told surgery would leave her sterile

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OTTAWA — A Quebec senator says her doctor never told her the surgical procedure she underwent in 2005 would leave her unable to have children, and she hopes her story can contribute to a broader look at systemic racism in Canada.

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Senator Amina Gerba told her story to her colleagues in the Senate earlier this month. She said she publicly supported a bill before the Senate to criminalize forced or forced sterilization.

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“I never wanted to be seen as someone who played the victim. I've always fought to move forward,” Sen. Amina Gerba told The Canadian Press in an emotional interview in French this week.

“I didn’t want to talk about it at all. But it was too difficult to remain silent.”

Gerba said her uterus was removed in 2005 at a Montreal hospital.

She said that several years ago she experienced severe menstrual pain and heavy bleeding, and once almost fainted at an international airport.

Gerba said her gynecologist signed her up for endometrial ablation, which involves removing some of the tissue that causes heavy periods.

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Although pregnancy is still possible after endometrial ablation, such pregnancies carry a high risk of miscarriage or dangerous medical complications. Women are advised to use birth control or some other method to avoid pregnancy after endometrial ablation.

Gerba said that although she stopped menstruating after the surgery, her painful symptoms also went away and her life returned to normal.

In 2016, during treatment for an unrelated health problem, Gerba’s doctor ordered an ultrasound of the pelvic organs.

Gerba said she was puzzled when her doctor told her she no longer had a uterus because she believed she had only undergone a minor procedure and not a hysterectomy.

“She told me, 'This is quite strange. Go see your gynecologist who did (the surgery) for endometriosis again so he can tell you what he actually did,” Gerba said.

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Gerba said the gynecologist who initially treated her had retired, but the Montreal hospital sent her doctor a medical record indicating she had had her uterus removed.

“I was never informed,” she said.

Gerba said she is not publicly naming the hospital or gynecologist because she is not interested in starting a legal battle that would distract from what she calls a systemic problem.

She said hospital records included a general consent form that allowed for all necessary surgeries to be performed, but there was no mention of a hysterectomy.

She said she still doesn't know if the medical team intended to completely remove her uterus or if they discovered something during the procedure that required removal.

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Gerba said she was shocked. She said that although she already had four children and was 44 at the time of the procedure, she should have been warned.

Gerba joined the Senate and its human rights committee, which was studying legislation to criminalize forced sterilization. She said hearing the heartbreaking testimonies of Indigenous women from across Canada brought her own story back to mind.

“It was when I listened to the witnesses that I realized I was actually a victim of this,” she said.

She said that when she talked about it with friends, she kept hearing from women—especially black women—who had the same experience.

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“This is a systemic problem that Indigenous people, Black people, people with disabilities (are experiencing) because people think they can't take care of themselves,” she said.

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“That's why I decided to speak out. Because many are silent.”

She first spoke about her experience in the Senate on October 1.

“Systemic racism does not discriminate between educated and uneducated women, rich and poor women. It affects all Indigenous and racialized women,” she told the chamber. Colleagues stood up to applaud and hug her.

In her Senate speech, she raised the term “misogyny,” a word coined by African-American feminist Moya Bailey to describe the mixture of racism and misogyny directed at black women.

Gerba said black women across North America report they are given little or no pain medication during treatment, reflecting the belief among some medical professionals that black women somehow don't feel pain as much as other people.

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A study published by the National Academy of Sciences found that half of white medical students hold this belief and sometimes offer less pain relief to black patients than to white ones.

Gerba said the 2020 case of Joyce Echaquan provided a rare glimpse into a widespread problem. Echaquan, an Indigenous woman, died in a Quebec City hospital after live-streaming herself screaming in pain while health workers made derogatory comments suggesting she was a drug addict going through withdrawal.

Gerba said she can't shake the suspicion that she only found out about the hysterectomy because her family doctor is a black woman in private practice. The gynecologist who removed her uterus was a white man.

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“Our health care system faces a serious problem of systemic racism, and it needs to be said,” she said. “If we do not recognize evil, we cannot cure it.”

She recalled how one of her daughters screamed in extreme pain during labor and the medical staff did not offer her an epidural or C-section.

“No matter what we do, there is always, always a feeling that we are lying, that we are playing the victim card, that we are exaggerating,” she said.

Gerba is uncomfortable saying this.

Coming to Canada from Cameroon, she spent decades opening businesses, including firms producing and distributing beauty products made from organic, fair-trade ingredients from Africa.

Since joining the Senate in 2021, she has focused her efforts on opening up entrepreneurship, trade and investment opportunities for Canadian businesses in Africa. Determined and driven, she avoids the label of “victim”.

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“I saw around me how people considered themselves activists who wanted to bring attention to the issues they were facing. I told myself that I would work a lot harder, that I had to be good at everything I did, no matter what it cost me, in order to succeed,” she said.

In the Senate, she said, she has a responsibility to represent “those who don't have a voice, those who don't have the ability to defend themselves” — and a platform to do so.

“I can't be silent anymore.”

Gerba is pushing for the House of Commons to quickly pass Bill S-228, which received a final vote in the Senate on October 2.

The Red House passed a similar bill a year ago, but it died when the Liberals prorogued parliament and before it even received any debate in the House.

“This is the system I want to change. That's why I spoke out,” she said. “This should be a crime.”

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