Nora W Coffey

Nora W. Coffey is a prominent women’s health advocate, activist and educator.

She has lectured extensively in the United States and in Europe. Coffey has been a guest lecturer in medical schools, nursing schools, undergraduate and graduate programs. She has been invited to present papers to Women and Gender Studies Conferences and women’s health organizations. She has also been interviewed by 20/20, Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue, and Good Morning America. Interviews with Coffey have appeared in the New York Times [2] [3], Los Angeles Times [4], Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe [5], New York Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today [6], Ms. Magazine and others [7] [8].

She has testified at U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [9] hearings and works with FDA to ensure the reporting of adverse events of uterine artery embolization (UAE), also called uterine fibroid embolization (UFE).

Coffey founded the Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services (HERS) Foundation in 1982 [10]. The foundation is the only independent nonprofit organization solely dedicated to the alternatives to and aftermath of hysterectomy.

Coffey produced Rick Schweikert’s play “un becoming” which premiered Off-Broadway in 2004. It was subsequently seen in 23 other cities and produced in Washington, D.C. in 2005. Barbara Seaman, the acclaimed writer, health advocate and author of The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth said of Schweikert’s play “Every woman, man and child should see this play!”

In 2004-2005 she led the only nationwide protest against hysterectomy. The protest took place in front of hospitals in every state, every day, for a year.

Currently Coffey is working toward a sustainable legal remedy to end hysterectomy without the information requisite to informed consent. Coffey and Schweikert’s book The H Word, is about the physical, political, economic and social environment surrounding hysterectomy will was published in 2009. Coffey was honored by the organization Women's Way of Philadelphia at their 32nd Annual Powerful Voice Awards on May 6, 2009.