When Aviva goes to the clinic to have the abortion, and the scene fades in and out while the doctor is speaking to her parents, what is he supposed to be telling them? I thought it would be explained, but it never is. A few other posts on the board say there was a complication with the procedure and she had to have a hysterectomy. Was this just a guess? It's never addressed in the rest of the film, and the doctor's dialogue was deliberately faded in and out to obscure what he was saying.
Obviously the intention was for us to not hear the conversation between her parents and the doctor verbatim but I could clearly make out the words "uterine wall" and "hysteretomy". That, along with the parents' reaction made it pretty clear that due to a complication, she would no longer be able to have children.
Hmmm, I could hear it perfectly, and it was supposed to be the POV of a drugged and groggy Aviva, whose parents have just been told that her womb is taken out. The odd thing is that it is never mentioned again.
it is never explicitly brought up again, but i think it could actually be quite important in the final scene. the idea that Aviva, in the end, is "sure" she is going to be a mom this time, despite the fact that she is physically incapable of having children, just reinforces the idea that there has been no emotional or intellectual growth in the character over the course of her narrative, and despite all the physical changes we see in her, she is forced to remain the same naive child that she was at the beginning - hence, making the film a palindrome. i think the fact that this small detail (the hysterectomy) is not bluntly brought up again as a reminder to the audience is a sign of good film-making, because for me, a really good film doesn't just end with the credits - i had actually forgotten about the hysterectomy until after i had finished the movie, but letting it sink in later as i continued to ponder the film made the message even more meaningful.
Its never mentioned again because, despite Aviva hearing it, she either didn't remember what she heard (or chose not to) or didn't know what a hysterectomy was, hence why she still tried to get pregnant.