|
 "Some women suffer from psychiatric conditions that may change their
perception of pain, bleeding and somatic symptoms, or may prompt the
desire to address such symptoms with medical or surgical
treatments," said study coauthor Dr. Walter Rocca, a professor of
epidemiology and neurology in the department of health sciences
research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"These women may undergo a complex itinerary of interactions with
primary care providers and may try several medical treatments,"
Rocca said in email. "When the treatments fail to address the pain
or discomfort, some women get referred for gynecological care or
directly for gynecological surgery."
To take a closer look at whether mental health conditions might have
an impact on the likelihood a woman would choose to have her ovaries
removed, a surgery known as oophorectomy, Rocca and his colleagues
compared 1,653 premenopausal women who had their ovaries removed
despite having no signs of cancer. The women had their surgeries
during the 20-year period from 1988 to 2007. They were matched in
age to a control group of 1,653 women who did not have the surgery.
After analyzing their data, the researchers found that pre-existing
mood disorders, anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders were
associated with an increased risk of women choosing to have both
ovaries removed. And that risk rose when women suffered from
multiple disorders, the researchers reported.
Women with one disorder were 1.55 times more likely to have an
oophorectomy, while those with three or more disorders were 2.19
times more likely to get the surgery, the researchers reported in
the journal Menopause.
"Unfortunately," Rocca said, "the surgery may not remove the pain or
discomfort and will cause important long-term harmful effects. There
is a need to develop more conservative strategies to address
gynecological symptoms in the absence of clear pathology."
[to top of second column] |
Ovary removal will send a woman into early menopause. Along with
bringing on symptoms such as hot flashes, sleeping problems and
reduced vaginal lubrication, it can increase her risk of heart
disease and osteoporosis.
The best way to avoid unnecessary oophorectomies is through "patient
and physician education," said Dr. Konstantin Zakashansky, director
of minimally invasive surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System and
an associate professor of gynecologic oncology at the Icahn School
of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
While the new study is "important in identifying additional risk
factors for oophorectomy," newer data might have yielded somewhat
different findings because surgical practice has changed over the
last several decades, Zakashansky said in an email. "Our attitudes
(patients and physicians) towards performing prophylactic
oophorectomy in premenopausal and postmenopausal patients have
changed (dramatically) over the last 10 years. We have become more
conservative in making the decision to perform oophorectomy based on
recent data pointing to significant long-term adverse health
consequences associated with removing ovaries."
The change has been made possible because of technological advances,
Zakashansky said. "Imaging techniques (3D ultrasonography and MRI),
biomarker and genetic testing have improved over the last 20 years
enhancing our ability to differentiate between malignant and
non-malignant ovarian conditions," he explained.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2ZOonaS Menopause, online August 30, 2019.
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
