Why Are So Many Indian Sugarcane Cutters Removing Their Wombs?

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A growing number of women in India are paying for expensive and medically unnecessary hysterectomies in order to avoid missing work as a result of their periods, according to health officials.
The disturbing trend is especially widespread in the western state of Maharashtra, where more than 4,600 women in the Beed District have undergone surgery to remove their womb over the past three years alone.

An Inquiry Committee

The seven-member committee under deputy chairperson of the Maharashtra legislative council Dr Neelam Gorhe has also suggested a slew of measures to tackle this social distress in the 140-page report.
“Information on 82,309 women in Beed district was collected by grassroots workers. It was found that 13,861 of the women surveyed had had their wombs removed in the past decade. Most of them are in the age group of 35-40 while a small section under 25 too has undergone hysterectomy. Personal interviews, group discussions and in-camera testimonies were also collected from a group of about 400 women,” Dr Gorhe said after the report was submitted to the government.
The majority of these women work as sugar-cane cutters, and are employed by and in debt to contractors.
Every year, tens of thousands of poor families from Beed and neighbouring districts migrate to more affluent western areas of the state – known as “the sugar belt” – to work during the cane cutting season, which runs from October to March.

The migrant sugarcane laborers are promised around Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 lakh in wages per year and to be able to achieve the target they are made to work for near about 12 hours of the day.
To make this happen women spend around Rs 25 to Rs 30,000 on hysterectomy surgery.

But many contractor are reluctant to hire women who menstruate, in case they miss a day or two off work during their periods. “Some even offer advances to women who intend to get the surgery.”
Workers who miss a day or just part of a day are fined 500 rupees (£5.97) from the wages paid to each husband and wife team – a hefty levy given that the average female farmer in the state earns about 202 rupees (£2.39) a day.
As a result, “in the cane cutter community, menstrual periods are considered a problem and they think surgery is the only option to get rid of it”.
Activists and studies surveying affected women say there are socioeconomic reasons behind this phenomenon.
They claim that women are becoming “womb-less”, whether voluntarily or coerced, for two main reasons.
The first is that doctors are exploiting them, scaring them into believing that the expensive surgery is necessary and, therefore, turning a profit. The second is because of a perception that menstruation hinders work.

During cane-cutting season, October to March, the women often rise at 4am to make food for their family. The working day then begins at 6am and ends at around sunset, 6:30pm.
Field work is rigorous and requires upper body strength. After the cane is cut, it is tied together. The women carry the loads on their heads.
If they need to urinate, they usually do it in the fields because longer breaks incur a fine. (During menstruation, it becomes difficult)

Women are often made to believe that their uterus is of no use after childbirth and are rushed into unnecessary surgeries.
Some unethical clinics, whose main purpose is maximising business, advise hysterectomies by telling women that their ailment may turn cancerous. [But unnecessary] hysterectomies [may] also lead to other health issues.
Since news on the hysterectomies in Beed came to light, questions have been raised on the possible role of the medical fraternity in making women undergo the procedure.
State data showed that 99 private hospitals in Beed district have carried out 4,605 hysterectomies since April 2016. Eleven of these hospitals have carried out more than 100 hysterectomies in the three-year period.

Several women in the villages of Beed district referred to their “female problems”, a euphemism for menstruation – still largely a taboo subject in rural India.
Periods are viewed by some sections of society as making women impure, and they are banished to live in menstruation huts.
They can’t enter temples or kitchens, and can’t touch anyone.

A serious impact on the health of the women as they develop a hormonal imbalance, mental health issues, gain weight, etc.
More than 150 million women in the country suffer from so-called period poverty – being unable to afford sanitary products. “Some women use cloth or rags with sand, jute, or even cow dung, which increases the risk of infections,” reports the BBC.

Sitting on the floor of her tin-roofed shanty, Kale, slightly under five-feet tall, points towards her back and knees.
“The uterus-removal surgery has no doubt relieved me from the menstrual cramps and vaginal discharge, but it has brought along back and joint pain. On many days, the pain is unbearable. It’s like I have aged at a greater speed,” she says.

Committee, set up in 2019 and chaired by Dr. Neelam Gorhe, found that psychosomatic distress was common among them.
It found that of 13,861 women who had undergone a hysterectomy, over 45 per cent – 6,314 – later experienced mental and physical distress ranging from difficulties in sleeping, depressed mood and nihilistic thoughts, to aching joints and back pain.
Pain-relief ointments and oral medication offer momentary relief. “I apply this cream for my knees and back pain. I use two tubes in a month,” a woman says, showing a tube of diclofenac gel that costs Rs. 166.
There are also pills prescribed by a doctor. Twice a month, she is administered a glucose infusion through an intravenous drip, to help with the fatigue.

Question:
The hormone that is released from the testes is ______.