Okay... gonna get a bit graphic here. Squeamish boys, plug your ears, cover your eyes, just generally get out of the thread.
I had a hysterectomy almost two years ago. I had hit the point where I was house bound one week of the month, and may as well have just been wearing a diaper for what it took to try to keep up with the level of bleeding I was experiencing. The pain was all the time, not just when menstruating, due to the lining of my uterus actually infiltrating the uterine walls. Yet, given all that, my hysterectomy was still seen as elective by medical standards. I was warned of that when going in... that my surgery could be bumped by those with more pressing need (ie., a prolapse, an ectopic pregnancy, a cancer discovery, etc.) Under many health insurance plans in the US, to my understanding, elective surgery is not covered. Only medical NEED is. The way 'need' gets defined can be very different things in the eyes of the patient, of the doctor, and of the insurance company.