Each year in the United States, about 600,000 hysterectomies are performed for reasons that range from reproductive cancers to uterine fibroids.
If you find yourself considering a hysterectomy to improve your health and/or quality of life, it’s important to understand the entire picture, including any long-term consequences of a hysterectomy before natural menopause.
For more clarity, we turn to Dr. Ulas Bozdogan and our team at Advanced Endometriosis Center, who have in-depth experience with hysterectomies, including minimally invasive, robotic-assisted procedures.
In the following, we look at some of the changes that can occur in your body after a hysterectomy that have the potential to shape your future health.
First, we want to touch on a very important point — there are different types of hysterectomies, and this matters when considering long-term consequences. (Please note that, in all of these cases, infertility is a guaranteed outcome.) These types include:
Where significant long-term consequences come in is when we remove your ovaries during your hysterectomy, which launches you into menopause, no matter your age. This is because your ovaries are the primary producers of your reproductive hormones, such as estrogen.
Many women come to us with benign gynecologic conditions that are sometimes best resolved by removing the uterus, such as:
In these cases, our goal is to minimize what we remove, and since your uterus is the primary issue in each of these cases, we focus on removing that organ while keeping your ovaries intact.
When this is possible, your long-term health consequences aren’t as pronounced, but studies show that there are still some possible long-term side effects tied to this procedure, including:
Ongoing research is exploring these associations to determine how directly they relate to the hysterectomy.
Where long-term consequences after a hysterectomy really come into play is when we remove your ovaries, which kicks off a surgical menopause.
No matter what age you are, removing your ovaries will lead to the same issues that women who go through natural menopause face, including:
This list is by no means complete, but it does include the more common side effects of menopause.
Emerging evidence suggests that losing ovarian hormones earlier than natural menopause may be associated with signs of accelerated biological aging.
Our goal in discussing the potential long-term health considerations of a hysterectomy is to ensure you have all the information needed to make an informed decision.
In some cases, a hysterectomy can save your life, such as when you’re dealing with a reproductive cancer. In other cases, it can greatly improve your quality of life and relieve pelvic pain and other ongoing issues.
In these cases, the potential consequences may pale in comparison to what you’ve been dealing with. Also, bear in mind that there are hormone therapies and lifestyle changes that can help offset these long-term health side effects.
If you’d like to sit down with us to discuss the best path forward and whether a hysterectomy or another approach is better for your long-term health, please contact us at one of our conveniently located offices in New York City or Paramus, New Jersey, to schedule a consultation.
