Hysterectomy? Think Again!

In February of 2000 a paper was published in the prestigious medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology entitled, “The appropriateness of recommendations for hysterectomy.” The authors were four MD’s from the University of California Los Angeles and they reported some very disturbing data. 497 women who had hysterectomies were evaluated for the appropriateness of their surgeries using two gold-standard criteria. The following were the reasons for hysterectomy:

• 60% Uterine Fibroids
• 11% Pelvic Relaxation
• 9% Pain
• 8% Bleeding

The authors found that 367 (70%) of the 497 hysterectomies did not meet the level of care recommended by the expert panel and were judged to be recommended inappropriately. The most common reasons recommendations for hysterectomies considered inappropriate were lack of adequate diagnostic evaluation and failure to try alternative treatments before hysterectomy.

The authors concluded: Hysterectomy is often recommended for indications judged inappropriate. Patients and physicians should work together to ensure that proper diagnostic evaluation has been done and appropriate treatments considered before hysterectomy is recommended.

Dr. Hedberg’s Comment:

Hysterectomy, the surgical removal of the uterus, is a procedure surrounded by controversy – and for good reason. Hysterectomy is the second most common major operation performed in the today, second only to cesarian section. Approximately 600,000 American women have a hysterectomy every year, at a cost of almost 5 billion dollars. By the age of 60, one out of every three women in the has had a hysterectomy.
The percentage of American women who have a hysterectomy is much higher than the percentage of European women having a hysterectomy. For example, American women are twice as likely to have a hysterectomy as women in and four times as likely as Swedish women. French doctors almost never perform a hysterectomy for fibroids, which is the most common reason for hysterectomy in this country.

At a cost $7,000.00-$15,000.00 per hysterectomy it’s no wonder OB/GYN’s are so quick to recommend this highly profitable procedure. Please explore and exhaust alternative treatments before undergoing a surgery that it most likely unnecessary. You can read an article I wrote on uterine fibroids in the articles section of my website.