Removal of ovaries with hysterectomy ‘warrants caution in under-50s’
A conservative approach may avoid premature mortality in younger women having hysterectomy for non-malignant reasons, researchers suggest
Premenopausal women who undergo bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy at the time of non-malignant hysterectomy may be at greater risk of all-cause death, researchers say.
Their population-based observational study suggests that the risks associated with surgical removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes may not outweigh benefits among the under-50s.
In contrast, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO) “does not appear to be detrimental to survival” in postmenopausal women and provides significant reduction in the risk of ovarian cancer.
Writing in the BMJ, the team examined data from more than 200,000 women in Ontario, Canada, who underwent hysterectomy for non-cancerous reasons — of whom more than 76,000 had concurrent BSO — between 1996 and 2017.
