 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> With that in mind, the group is launching a campaign called "What's Going on Down There?" It seeks to educate women how to maintain pelvic health throughout their lives and to provide information about common pelvic conditions and available treatments.
The number of women 40 to 49 years old who are having hysterectomies is a "secret in plain view," added Henrick Harwood, a vice president of the Lewin Group, which prepared the report for the NWHRC. "It's estimated that at least 25 percent of boomers will have a hysterectomy by the age of 60," he said.
What makes Baby Boom women turn to hysterectomies, the same treatment their mothers and grandmothers underwent, when better, newer options are available?
Text Continues Below
"That's the real question," said Dr. William H. Parker, an obstetrician and gynecologist and clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.
"The numbers still haven't changed," Parker said, despite such surgical advances as myomectomy, which removes the fibroid rather than the entire uterus, and endometrial ablation, which destroys a thin layer of the uterine lining. "It's shocking," he added.
Parker said some women may not turn to the newer treatments, which have a quicker recovery time and preserve the uterus and ovaries, because the doctor who delivered their children and whom they've seen for 20 years recommended a hysterectomy.
Many doctors, Parker added, aren't trained to do the newer surgeries, insurance companies may not reimburse for them, or women may simply not be aware of them.
"A major part of my practice is giving second and third opinions because women are not getting the information they want," Parker said.
There are other factors that may compel women to continue to have unnecessary hysterectomies.
Dr. David Archer, a reproductive endocrinologist at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, said endometrial ablation may not always be the cure for heavy bleeding, called menorrhagia. "The improvement in blood loss may not mean no blood loss at all," he explained. He added that, with a hysterectomy, the bleeding stops, so some women may choose that option to get it over with.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>
|
.gif)
