A prospective study of the short‐term outcomes of hysterectomy with and without oophorectomy

Abstract

Although levels of satisfaction with the procedure of hysterectomy were high, new symptoms and regrets about the loss of fertility were commonly reported.

Psychosocial effects of hysterectomy

“…While hysterectomy seems to have no systematic negative effect on orgasmic potential in most women, a subgroup of 15-25% appears to experience adverse changes in the frequency of orgasm [21,39,62,66,69].…”

“…To date, empirical evidence does not support any broad adverse effects of hysterectomy on women's psychosocial functioning [5]. Positive outcomes of hysterectomy include decreases in chronic pelvic pain and pain during intercourse, as well as the elimination of menstrual pain and dysfunctional uterine bleeding [21,23,54]. However, hysterectomy may sometimes result in new symptoms related to pain, sexual dysfunction, and psychological distress, as well as in long-term adverse effects related to ovarian failure [39,47].…”

“…In many uncontrolled prospective surveys, patients report significant pain relief [7,[37][38][39]99,100]. Yet, according to one prospective study, pelvic pain was also found to persist in approximately 40% of cases posthysterectomy [21]. Studies with control groups suggest that uterus-conserving procedures can be as effective as hysterectomy in relieving pelvic pain [24,47].…”

“…The use of LAVH has been rising since 1990 because it involves less cutting and scarring, which is thought to reduce the convalescence time; evidence, however, has been scarce with regard to psychosexual effects [1,12]. Curiously, the availability of newer and less invasive approaches has not substantially impacted current medical practice [21], perhaps because there has been little support for differentiated outcomes [11,12,14].…”

Effect of Hysterectomy on Bowel Function

“…Patients were predominately Caucasians from a homogenous socioeconomic population. Mean age was [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Mean parity was 1.65 (range, 0-4) children and six patients reported that they had undergone primary sphincter repair at the time of delivery.…”