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A hysterectomy does not mean the end of a woman's sex
life and the surgery can even improve sexual pleasure,
a new study
shows. Dutch researchers, who questioned more than 400 women
who had the operation, found an overwhelming positive response. "Sexual
pleasure significantly improved in all patients," said
Dr Jan-Paul Roovers, of the University Medical Center in
Utrecht in the Netherlands.
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LONDON (Reuters), Thu October 02, 2003
Women often fear the surgery, in which the
womb is removed, will affect their sexuality.
But all the patients in the Dutch study, regardless of whether
they had a vaginal or partial or total abdominal hysterectomy,
reported fewer sexual problems after the surgery than before.
"The effects on sexual wellbeing are not as bad as
we have always been afraid of," said Roovers, adding that the research
is the first study to focus on the impact of hysterectomy.
But he stressed that the surgery is not a treatment for sexual
problems.
Hysterectomies are the second most common major operation,
after Caesarean section, for women in the United States and
Britain, according to Roovers. By the age of 60 as many as
a third of women in the United States have had the surgery.
The type of surgery depends on the reason for doing it. Most
hysterectomies are performed for menstrual disorders, endometriosis,
a condition in which the tissue that lines the womb grows outside
the organ, fibroids and cancer.
In a vaginal hysterectomy the womb is removed through the vagina,
instead of the abdomen. A total abdominal hysterectomy includes
the removal of the cervix.
© Copyright
Reuters 2002
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Gynecological
diseases