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Women who have their healthy ovaries removed when they have a hysterectomy face a higher risk of death — including death from coronary heart disease and lung cancer — than women who keep their ovaries, according to new research.
The finding from a study published in the May issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology challenges conventional wisdom that removing ovaries along with the uterus offers the best chance for long-time survival.
Doctors have recommended for decades that women who get a hysterectomy consider having both ovaries removed, a procedure called a bilateral oophorectomy, to prevent ovarian cancer later in life. Ovarian cancer is rare, accounting for about 3% of all cancers and 1% of all deaths in women. But it is difficult to detect and treat, so many women opt to have their ovaries taken out.
Of the 600,000 women in the United States who get a hysterectomy every year, about 300,000 also have their ovaries removed — about 50% of those between the ages 40 and 44 and 78% of those ages 45 to 64.
But the study’s authors said routine removal is often not a good choice. Though the risk of ovarian and breast cancer declined after ovary removal, the risk of heart disease and stroke for women under 50 nearly doubled, and risk of death overall before age 50 rose by 40%.
“For the last 35 years, most doctors have been routinely advising women undergoing hysterectomy to have their ovaries removed to prevent ovarian cancer,” said lead author Dr. William H. Parker, who is on the adjunct faculty at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. “We believe that such an automatic recommendation is no longer warranted.”
Removing the ovaries did not appear to provide an overall survival benefit for any age group of women, in large part because heart disease, stroke and lung cancer each is far more common than ovarian cancer.
The study found that among women who had never used estrogen replacement therapy, those who were younger than 50 when their ovaries were removed had a significantly greater risk of death from coronary heart disease, stroke and any cause than did older women.
Before menopause, women’s ovaries produce estrogen and other hormones that have a protective effect on the heart, bones and bone vessels, said Dr. Bert Scoccia, professor and director in the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. That effect is lost when the ovaries are removed, said Scoccia, who was not involved in the study.
“My hope is that this study will change the way we practice medicine, especially in women before menopause,” Scoccia said. “It makes sense to leave the ovaries if there are no risk factors or pathology at the time of surgery, especially in young women since those are the ones who seem to be most affected.”
Given their findings, the study authors urged women to talk to their physicians about their best options.
“Certainly, women with a strong family history of ovarian cancer or women who know they carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations that greatly increase their risk of ovarian and breast cancer should strongly consider having their ovaries removed,” Parker said.
But in the case of women with a strong family history of heart disease or stroke, Parker said, “maybe keeping your ovaries makes sense.”