Mayo Clinic found that Preventive Ovary Removal is linked to Early Death in Younger Women

Filed in archive Diagnostics , Studies , Treatment on September 23, 2006

According to a new Mayo Clinic study that will be published in the October 1 issue of The Lancet Oncology, death rates rise when women under 45 years old undergo bilateral ovariectomy and do not receive proper hormone replacement therapy.

Bilateral ovariectomy is the surgical removal of both ovaries when a woman has ovarian cancer or a benign disease in the ovaries that requires removal.

Mortality from all causes increased 1.7 times for women in this age category, and was particularly increased for estrogen-related cancers and diseases of the brain and cardiovascular system.

The increased risk was mainly restricted to those women who were not given estrogen after the surgery until at least age 45 (within five years of the approximate age of normal menopause). Also, the increased risk became evident only 10 or more years after the ovariectomy.

Lead author of the study, Walter Rocca, M.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist, epidemiologist made the above discoveries by chance while investigating links between ovary removal and brain diseases such as Parkinson's disease and dementia.

According to Bobbie Gostout, M.D., Mayo Clinic gynecologic surgeon who is not a study author but consulted with Dr. Rocca:

"These findings reopen the debate about preventive removal of the ovaries for younger women. We don't see a dramatic increase in risk for early death from any one condition, but Dr. Rocca's study did show some increase in risk of death from breast and uterine cancers, and neurologic and vascular conditions.

Collectively, this information tells us that a procedure that previously looked advantageous in protecting women's health may actually have disadvantages. We need to be very thoughtful about ovariectomy, as it may put younger women at risk for an earlier death."

These results indicate that surgical practice for women under age 45 should be changed.

The following theories are proposed by the study's investigators to explain the finding of increased early deaths for younger women who have preventive ovariectomy without adequate estrogen replacement:

• Premature estrogen deficiency following the surgery increased the risk for various diseases that in turn reduced survival.


• The surgery revealed an underlying pre-existing condition in these women that caused early death following surgery.


• These women may have a genetic predisposition to uterine diseases or other symptoms that prompted hysterectomy, which then prompted preventive ovariectomy, while the same predisposition also increased the risk of cancer or other causes of death following the surgery.


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  Find more details from the Mayo Clinic News.