YourSpine.com - Chiropractic - U.S. Hysterectomy Rates Continue To Rise

U.S. Hysterectomy Rates Continue To Rise

A report in the January 31, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reports the startling news that U.S. hysterectomy rates are still higher than those of other countries with unnecessary operations still the reason the rates are so high. This news comes in spite of attempts to reduce.

This news comes in spite of attempts to reduce hysterectomy rates over the last few years. "I had thought there might be a 10 percent or so drop over eight years," says the study's author, Dr. Cynthia Farquhar, Associate Professor of Reproductive Medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Farquhar found that not only had the rates not gone down during the study period (1990-1997) but they actually went up: from 5.5 hysterectomies per 1,000 women in 1990 to 5.6 in 1997. This rate is more than three to four times the rate of other countries and represents more than 600,000 surgeries per year.

According to the study, up to 40 percent of all U.S. hysterectomies were for fibroid tumors, typically benign, in and around the uterus that can cause severe bleeding. The surgery was performed even though other options were available. In some cases, even women with benign fibroid tumors that were not causing problems were advised to have a hysterectomy.

The study also found that abdominal hysterectomy, the most invasive type of surgery which removes the uterus through a major incision, was done more than 63 percent of the time even though it cost the most, had the longest recovery time and required the longest hospital stay.

Dr. Ernst Bartsich, Associate Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, says, “Clearly, women are not getting the message from their doctors. Or doctors are not listening to what women are saying, or we would have seen some kind of decrease in the number of operations by now.”

Bartsich goes on to say that in the case of fibroid tumors “a hysterectomy need never be considered a first-line defense for this problem.”

Because the number of hysterectomies for fibroid tumors was so high, approximately ten years ago state health departments across the nation began to require that doctors list all treatment options in the operation consent forms in an effort to make sure women were being informed of all their options.

Commentary: This study shows that not only were those efforts in vain, they had the opposite effect; the rates of unnecessary hysterectomies went up. It’s hard for us to see the motivation as something other than money considering that the majority of the surgeries were not only unnecessary but the most expensive as well.

Change Zip Code Close