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Removal of Ovaries Increases Heart Disease Risk

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The common practice of removing the ovaries during hysterectomy should be discouraged, new research sustains. Oophorectomy, the removal of ovaries, seems to harm rather than help, and may actually shorten the lives of the female patients undergoing it.

Hysterectomy implies the removal of the uterus and sometimes the cervix (total hysterectomy) and is performed particularly when cancer threatens, but also, more recently, for reasons that are not life-threatening - fibroid tumors, excessive menstrual bleeding, although there are more options for these disorders then hysterectomies. 90% of the 615,000 hysterectomies performed each year are for non-cancerous reasons.

As for the removal of ovaries when hysterectomy is performed, federal data from the late 1990s show that 78 percent of women between ages 45 and 64 who underwent a hysterectomy had their ovaries taken out as well, though most were not at particular risk for ovarian cancer. Medical attitude is generally to take them out as a protective measure, even in women who are not at particular risk of ovarian cancer. Reasons in support of this were that childbearing was over and menopause imminent, as well as ovarian cancer particularly deadly. There is no evidence, however, that oophorectomy is beneficial for these women, this current study confirms. The ovaries can be left intact in women who have a normal risk of cancer.

The lead researcher of the study, Dr. William H. Parker, clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, used data from other studies about women's mortality risks and from studies tracking heart attacks and bone-thinning osteoporosis in oophorectomy patients; he created a model of how women with different characteristics would fare with ovary removal at different ages.

The models suggest that, for women whose ovaries were removed before the age of 65, there was an increased risk of death from heart disease. As many as 18,000 women a year may die prematurely because of ovarian surgery Dr. William H. Parker Dr. Parker found that 9% fewer women who had an oophorectomy between ages 50 and 54 reached the age of 80 than women who had a hysterectomy, but kept their ovaries. He also reached the conclusion that the older a woman was when she had her ovaries removed, the smaller was the impact on her chances of reaching 80 and the younger a woman is when she has an oophorectomy, the longer the absence of ovaries will have an impact on her health.

Surprisingly enough, women who kept their ovaries also reduced their chances of developing ovarian cancer by 40 percent, as compared with women who did not have hysterectomies at all.

Dr. Parker is hoping that doctors will now consider both the advantages and disadvantages of this practice and present both to their patients before advising them to have their ovaries removed. The findings were published in yesterday's issue of the journal "Obstetrics & Gynecology".