Australian study finds hysterectomies do not cause weight gain
November 15th, 2008 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
An Australian study on hysterectomies, menopause and overweight women debunks the long-held myth that hysterectomies cause weight gain, but found overweight women are more likely to have hysterectomies, according to ABC Science.
Researchers from the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health in Brisbane studied data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, which compiled information beginning in 1996. From that, the researchers pulled data collected from nearly 1,000 women born between 1946 and 1951, both before and after hysterectomies. What they found was that hysterectomies performed on women older than 45 to 50 years of age did not lead to greater weight gain. However, the study did show that overweight women with a body mass index between 25 and 30, were more likely to have hysterectomies.
The study supports the concern of health care providers that obesity leads to more chronic health concerns.
Where and how a woman lives also may affect hysterectomy rate, according to the report. Women from rural communities or lower socioeconomic backgrounds had a higher rate of hysterectomy compared to women from urban communities or higher socioeconomic upbringings. Researchers theorize that hysterectomies were more often considered “quick fixes” for various health problems in rural environments and in communities where there are more barriers to access to regular care.
Research also has found that women from those backgrounds are more likely to have children at younger ages and thus more likely to accept hysterectomies than women who choose to have children later in life.
The study is published in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society.