You’ve been dealing with painful and messy periods for as long as you can remember, and you’re tired of the monthly battle. Or, maybe your uterus has shifted out of position, and it’s creating functional issues. Whatever’s going on, your uterus may have become more of a liability than an asset, and you might be considering a hysterectomy.
If this is the case, you’re in very good company — about 600,000 women undergo a hysterectomy each year in the United States for a wide variety of reasons.
To give you an idea of the many roads to a hysterectomy, Dr. Ulas Bozdogan and our team here at Advanced Endometriosis Center want to share some of the ones we see most at our practice. Let’s take a look.
There are different types of hysterectomy — subtotal, total, radical — but the primary goal of each is to remove your uterus. In some cases, we may remove your cervix, too, as well as your ovaries and other tissues.
Endometriosis, which affects about 11% of American women ages 15-44, is at or near the top of the list of reasons women undergo a hysterectomy. There’s no cure for this condition, which is often characterized by painful periods and heavy bleeding, making a hysterectomy a viable option.
While most women develop uterine fibroids — noncancerous growths in your uterus — in some cases, these fibroids can be painful and lead to heavy bleeding. A myomectomy, a procedure in which Dr. Bozdogan removes only your fibroids, is one treatment option, but fibroids can grow back. The other option is to remove the organ in which these fibroids grow.
As a woman gets older, she can lose strength in her pelvic floor, which can allow pelvic organs to shift downward, including the uterus. If you’re dealing with uterine prolapse and conservative efforts fail to make a difference, a hysterectomy can make good sense.
If you have ovarian, uterine, cervical, or another type of gynecologic cancer, a hysterectomy is often the first step we recommend to remove the known cancerous tissues from your body.
There are other reasons women come to us for a hysterectomy, so we’ll round out this list with a few more, including:
Whatever the reason, we want you to know you’re in excellent hands at our practice. When he performs a hysterectomy, Dr. Bozdogan uses the most advanced and minimally invasive techniques available, including robotic surgery.
If you have more questions about whether you should undergo a hysterectomy, we’re here to help. To get started, please schedule a consultation with Dr. Bozdogan today online or over the phone. We have offices in New York City and Hackensack, New Jersey.
