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Consulate General of India presents the Women's Health Initiative Seminar in association with Midwest Institute for Minimally Invasive Therapies

Chicago IL: The Consulate General of India in Association with Midwest institute Of Minimally Invasive Therapies (MIMIT) for the first time ever held a South Asian Women's Health Initiative Seminar last month in Chicago. This historic event found its inception in the desire by the CG Dr Ausaf Sayeed to educate the Indian and South Asian women about their health and eventually provide a great platform for an going educational series for women's health in the community.

Dr Sayeed stressed the importance of dealing with such important women's issues. "Women not only in South Asia but across the world suffer from gynecological-related issues, and thousands of women have to have their wombs removed in hysterectomies. More than 600,000 hysterectomies are performed each year in the U.S. and in India the number is much greater. We are here to explore to alternate treatments to hysterectomies. When I learned from Dr. Chopra 75 percent of the hysterectomies are unnecessary, I decided we needed to bring this issue to as many women as possible"

The Keynote Speaker was Dr Paramjit "Romi" Chopra - founder and chairman at MIMIT and Associate Professor at RUSH University - a world renowned expert in the treatment of many non-invasive therapies for several types of health issues including uterine fibroids. According to Chopra "more than 75% of hysterectomies are unnecessary and there is a less invasive and more cost effective treatment called Uterine Fibroid Embolization which allows women to avoid a full hysterectomy which often strips them of their womanhood". This topic has become increasingly relevant to the heath of South Asian women because after African-Americans, South Asian women are the largest group to suffer uterine fibroids and hysterectomies are the one the most common surgical procedures performed on women across world, second only to C-section.

"The 1 day out 1 time procedure is not well known to and often times not even provided as an option to women because gynecologists don't perform it and thus are often less knowledgeable or reluctant to offer it as an option." However physical, psychological and financial benefits far out-weigh being subject to a traditional

Surgical hysterectomy.

I think it is important that people should know about this, they need to be educated, they just go the gynecologists and they think their word is final, they don't look for options because they have no idea. There is nothing like stopping something which is unnecessary," said Farah Sayeed who has strongly advocated for greater education surrounding women's health issues.

When you are educating a man you are just teaching I person but when you are teaching a woman you are teaching a mother, sister or a wife, the whole family and community. We as South Asians are very conservative and need to give women the options and tools available to deal with their health issues.

Those who are interested in learning more about the procedure are encouraged to contact Dr. Romi Chopra at the Midwest Institute for Minimally Invasive Therapies at www.mimit.com

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