Hysterectomy

9. Hysterectomy

Dr. Mendelsohn notes the frequency of unnecessary surgery. He says, “Women also seem to be the victims of a lot of unnecessary surgery. Another operation steadily climbing toward the million-a-year mark is the hysterectomy. The National Center for Health Statistics estimated that 690,000 women had their uteruses removed in 1973, which results in a rate of 647.7 per 100,000 females. Besides the fact that this is a higher rate than for any other operation, if the rate continued, it would mean that half of all women would lose their uterus by age 65! That’s if the rate holds steady. Actually, its growing. In 1975, 808,000 hysterectomies were performed.

“Very few of them were necessary. In six New York hospitals, forty-three percent of the hysterectomies reviewed were found to be unjustified. Women with abnormal bleeding from the uterus and abnormally heavy menstrual blood flow were given hysterectomies even though other treatments—or no treatment at all—would have most likely worked just as well.”