Oophorectomy is the surgical removal of the ovaries of a female animal. In the case of non-human animals, this is also called spaying. It is a form of sterilization.

The removal of the ovaries together with the Fallopian tubes is called salpingo-oophorectomy. Oophorectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy are not common forms of birth control in humans; more usual is tubal ligation, in which the Fallopian tubes are blocked but the ovaries remain intact.

In humans, oophorectomy is most usually performed together with a hysterectomy - the removal of the uterus. Its use in a hysterectomy when there are no other health problems is somewhat controversial.

In animals, spaying involves an invasive removal of the ovaries, but rarely has major complications; the superstition that it causes weight gain is not based on fact. Spaying is especially important for certain animals that require the ovum to be released at a certain interval (called estrus or "heat"), such as cats and dogs. If the cell is not released during these animal's heat, it can cause severe medical problems that can be averted by spaying or partnering the animal with a male.

Oophorectomy is sometimes referred to as castration, but that term is most often used to mean the removal of a male animal's testicles.

See also

• tubal ligation & birth control
• circumcision
• genital mutilation & female circumcision

Wikisource is a sister project to Wikipedia that aims to create a free wiki compendium of primary source texts in any language, as well as translations of source texts. Originally called Project Sourceberg (after Project Gutenberg) during the planning stages for the project, the site was officially named Wikisource on December 6 2003 following a vote.

The logo shown, based on a picture of an iceberg, was used for Project Sourceberg, but has not attracted much enthusiasm since the change of name.

History

The project was launched on November 24 2003 under the temporary URL http://sources.wikipedia.org and later got its own domain name: http://wikisource.org.

Prior to this, source texts were placed at ps.wikipedia.org http://ps.wikipedia.org , which was mistakenly used to mean Project Sourceberg, but is actually the Pashto language Wikipedia. All texts which had been placed there were moved to the official site on the day of the launch.

Within two weeks of the project's official start, over 1000 pages had been created, with approximately 200 of these being designated as actual articles. At the start of 2004, the site had 100 registered users. In early July, 2004 the number of articles exceeded 2400, and more than 500 users had registered.

External links

• Wikisource site http://wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page:English (English Main Page)
• Early discussions about the project http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikisource