Marrying the Uterus by Ayesha Quddusi (guest writer)
Photo-credit: Saniya Kamal, AKU MBBS ' 18 I was doing a rotation in anaesthesia. Standing in the pre-operative area, waiting for the next patient for our operation room to arrive, I overheard perhaps one of the most significant conversations of my life. There was a young patient and her Obstetrician / Gynecologist (OB/GYN). There was some talk about removing her uterus, perhaps a cancer or something else threatening her life. I couldn't really hear everything nor was that the intention. Simply stated, I wasn't paying much attention to it. They were going to remove her uterus to save her life. That much I could tell. And then she asked her doctor a simple question. A simple yet bone chilling question. "Meray paas bachadani nahi hoge tau mujh se shaadi kaun karay ga?" (If I don't have a womb, who is going to marry me?) The doctor paused. Smiled reassuringly. "Beta, shadi bachadani se thori hoti hai." (Child, it's not the womb one marr...