Why is hysterectomy necessary?

The patient must give her consent after understanding the risks and the irreversible nature of the intervention. One major consequence is the inability to have children.

While conservative surgery is trying to preserve as much as possible from the affected organs, radical surgery removes them. The first is less invasive, but also presents a higher degree of recurrence, while the second does a better job to prevent it.

With cancer (of the womb, cervical, ovarian), especially in an advanced stage, a hysterectomy may be the only choice of treatment.

For non-cancerous conditions, it becomes an alternative after other approaches were inefficient.

• Endometriosis - The most common treatment for the painful inflammation and complications caused by endometriosis is laparoscopy. The hysterectomy shows fewer risks of recurrence.
• Adenomyosis - With hysterectomy, the thickening tissue growing on the muscular wall of the uterus can be removed definitively.
• Abnormal vaginal bleeding - Heavy periods caused by fibroids or without obvious causes, can affect the quality of life. Hysterectomy becomes the last choice when other treatments don't work.
• Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) - In PID, a bacterial infection of the female reproductive organs gives chronic pelvic pain. If it doesn't cure with antibiotics and the pain is severe, the woman may choose to remove the uterus.
• Uterine fibroids - Fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that grow in or around the womb. Large fibroids can cause pain and bleeding, and other problems and can be eliminated by hysterectomy.
• Uterine prolapse - After childbirth, the uterus may no longer be supported by tissues and ligaments. The prolapse means sliding from its normal position. The back pain, urinary incontinence, difficulties having sex can be treated with a hysterectomy.