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

Cyrillic letter Ya
Image:Cyrillic letter Ya.png
Cyrillic alphabet
А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Д	Ђ
Ѓ	Е	Ё	Є	Ж	Ѕ	З
И	І	Ї	Й	Ј	К	Л
Љ	М	Н	Њ	О	П	Р
С	Т	Ћ	Ќ	У	Ў	Ф
Х	Ц	Ч	Џ	Ш	Щ	Ъ
Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Archaic letters
Ҁ	Ѹ	Ѡ	Ѿ	Ѻ	Ѣ	ІА
Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѩ	Ѭ	Ѯ	Ѱ
Ѳ	Ѵ	Ѷ

Ya (Я, я) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the iotated vowel /ja/ (SAMPA).

It is the 33rd and last letter of the Russian alphabet. In Russian language, the word "Я" is the personal pronoun "I". A popular saying based on this fact, "Ya is the last letter in the alphabet", is used to teach children modesty and humility. Interestingly, in Early Cyrillic alphabet the name "Az" of the first letter("A") stood for "I".

The Cyrillic letters Я and И are used in faux Cyrillic typography.

History

Ya is actually a hybrid of two historic letters. One is A iotified (IA), a ligature of І and А, similar to letters Yu (Ю) or Iotified E (Ѥ). The other is Little Yus (Ѧ). Over time, phonetic distinction between IA and Ѧ was lost, and when Peter I introduced his "civil script" in 1708, the single letter Ya (Я) substituted for both. So, Я is a late addition to the Cyrillic alphabet. It does not exist in the Glagolitic, Greek or Latin alphabets, it has no numerical value and no name other than "Ya".

In Unicode, Я shares codepoints with IA (A iotified). The actual glyph depends on the font.

Code positions

Character encoding	Case	Binary	Hexadecimal	Octal	Decimal
Unicode	Capital	0000010000101111	042F	2057	1071
	Small	0000010001001111	044F	2117	1103
KOI	Capital	11110001	F1	361	241
	Small	11010001	D1	321	209
Windows 1251	Capital	11011111	DF	337	223
	Small	11111111	FF	377	255
ISO 8859-5	Capital	11001111	CF	317	207
	Small	11101111	EF	357	239

Its HTML entity is Я or &#x42F for capital and я or я for small letter.

Related articles

• Iotation