Debbie Braaten

Ms. Debbie Braaten was an artist and taught art classes privately, and through the College of the Albemarle’s non-credit, Continuing Education in Hatteras, North Carolina. In November of 1996 a hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed on Ms. Braaten. Although compounded, bio-identical hormone replacement has had positive effects, nothing in her life would be the same. Ms. Braaten had not met anyone else who had the same experience and was unable to put it into words until she discovered Hysterectomy Education, Resource and Services (HERS). On their website she finally saw, in black and white, what she had been trying to express. In March of 2005 she spoke on the panel of the HERS, Twenty-Fourth Hysterectomy Conference, coinciding with the culmination of a yearlong, Nationwide Protest demanding an end to unconsented hysterectomy in Washington, D.C. In 2008 and 2009, Ms. Braaten participated in the “Hill Day” portion of the annual conference for IACP, International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists as a patient of compounded hormones. A few years later she drafted, “Compounding, and It’s Importance to Me” for a committee that was reviewing new compounding legislation. In 2013 she became a Citizen Healer with Voice for Hope, a group of activists and healers who work to create a dialogue with our elected leaders to enlighten them about alternative health methods which the Healthcare Act of 2014 ignored. In 2018 she participated in the Health Huddle of Maryland Wise Women, offering her proposal, “Educating Women on the Possible Effects of Hysterectomy, Ovary Removal and Hormone Therapy.” Today Ms. Braaten is working with Citizens for Health to educate and empower women to remain in control of their own health and wellness decisions.