Removing Ovaries to Treat Women's Pelvic Pain: The Biography of Dr. Robert Battey

The book is the biography of Dr. Robert Battey (1828-1895) who, in 1872 in Rome Georgia, USA, operated on a woman with severe pain and removed her ovaries. He did the operation under the threat of homicide should she have died. She did survive and Battey and his operation became a famous internationally. There were no other effective treatments available for severe pelvic pain other than narcotics and chloroform. He also believed in the ovarian control of uterine bleeding, and the peculiar 'pertubations" affecting general health. Although he attempted to keep the indications of surgery for those with the most severe pain, the "Battey Operation" became a widespread procedure. The indications were not understood and included the poorly defined hystero-epilepsy and menstromania. The operation became discredited before his death in 1895. Battey's personal life and medical practice is reviewed. Analyzing his correspondence, case reports and voluminous medical publications indicate that he was a caring physician who was dealing with women suffering from severe pain sensitivity and likely endometriosis - conditions unknown at the time. Now, the complex picture of women's pelvic pain sensitization is understood to be associated with persistent and unrelenting pain, anxiety and depression, tenderness in the skin and abdominal and vaginal muscles and co-morbidities of migraine and arthralgias. Endometriosis is the most common cause of this condition. Current medical and surgical care are now based on suppression of ovarian function or if that fails, surgical removal.