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Whether the ovaries should be removed at the same time is still a debatable issue.
Some surgeons leave them, believing that normal organs should not be removed. Others remove them, believing that their function ceases following hysterectomy, and leaving them may allow disease, such as cancer or cysts to develop, thus requiring a further operation.
Many surgeons remove one ovary, thus halving the risk of developing cancer and leave the other to go on producing oestrogen so as to make the artificial menopause smoother. In women past the menopause, there is no hesitation about removing both ovaries.
With modern surgical techniques and anaesthesia, this operation is now safe.
Unfortunately nearly 50 per cent of those who have the uterus removed suffer from the post operative side-effects. These are mostly depression or interference in sexual function. Most of these side-effects are preventable.
Sometimes the operation is carried out for symptoms which are due more to nervous factors than to pathology or disease in the uterus. Of course, the operation doesn’t cure these symptoms, but only adds a few more.
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