- LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands
of British women who suffer heavy periods are having unnecessary
hysterectomies
to cure their menstrual bleeding, according to research published
Wednesday.
-
- Doctors who studied around half the hysterectomies
carried
out in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in one year in the mid-1990s
found that 46 percent were performed on women who complained of excessive
monthly bleeding.
-
- According to the British Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynaecology,
hysterectomies could have avoided in between 50 to 75 percent of these
cases, with doctors opting instead for a less invasive operation called
endometrial ablation.
-
- The technique, introduced as an alternative to
hysterectomy
in the late 1980s, avoids the need to remove the uterus by destroying the
lining of the womb -- the source of the bleeding.
-
- The report authors called on the government and Britain's
National Institute for Clinical Excellence to force doctors to consider
this treatment in more cases.
-
- "The availability of newer, less invasive techniques
for the treatment of heavy periods needs further consideration and both
the Department of Health and NICE should consider the need for national
guidelines for women and doctors," the authors concluded.
-
- Around 100,000 British women have a hysterectomy every
year, and by the age of 60, one in five has had their womb removed.
-
- Complications arose during one in 30 of the operations
during the year studied, the research showed, resulting in a need for
further
surgery in one in 130 cases.
-
- The Department of Health said it had asked NICE to give
the report's findings serious consideration.
-
- "The alternative use of endometrial ablation, as
recommended by the authors, is more widely available now than it was in
the mid-1990s when this report was researched. We have already asked NICE
to appraise this treatment," it said in a statement.
-
- Meanwhile, an orally-administered alternative to both
a hysterectomy and endometrial ablation could be available within the next
few years.
-
- American researchers announced last July they were
working
on two new drugs which could ease excessive menstrual pain and reduce the
need for hysterectomies.
-
- The pills, which suppress menstruation and ovulation
and block the effects of the female hormone estrogen on the lining of the
womb, have been successfully tested on rhesus macaque monkeys.
-
- If clinical trials are successful, the pills could offer
an alternative for women who cannot tolerate the contraceptive pill and
for those who suffer from endometriosis and painful and excessive monthly
cycles.
-
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