Having both ovaries removed nearly doubles risk of death

February 13, 2017

3,600 women a year have healthy ovaries removed to protect against cancer
Hormones produced by ovaries can have a protective effect on women’s health
Ovarian cancer kills more than 4,000 women in Britain every year

Stephen Adams Health Correspondent For The Mail On Sunday

Published:
17:07 EST, 11 February 2017

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Updated:
06:46 EST, 12 February 2017

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Women are almost doubling their risk of dying in middle age by opting to have both ovaries removed during a hysterectomy, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal.

About 3,600 women have both healthy ovaries taken out each year to protect against the risk of ovarian cancer.

But Warwick University scientists have concluded this benefit is ‘far outweighed’ by the increased danger of developing heart disease or cancer that comes with removing both ovaries.

Women are almost doubling their risk of dying in middle age by opting to have both ovaries removed during a hysterectomy (file photo)

They reached this conclusion after studying what happened to 114,000 premenopausal British women in the ten years following their hysterectomies.

Those who had both ovaries removed were twice as likely to die from cancer or heart disease as those who had one or both left intact.

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Lead author Richard Lilford said last night that hormones produced by ovaries can have a powerful protective effect on women’s health.

He added: ‘There’s good evidence that oestrogen protects against heart disease, while there’s some evidence from hormone replacement therapy that progesterone protects against colon cancer.’

Hormones produced by ovaries can have a powerful protective effect on women’s health and help to ward off heart disease and colon cancer (file photo)

Once both ovaries are removed, levels of these hormones plunge, increasing the risk of heart disease and cancer.

The study offers a stark choice for those whose family history raises their risk of ovarian cancer.

Kath Pinder, of the charity Target Ovarian Cancer, said removal ‘might be the only option’ to avoid the disease, which kills more than 4,000 women in Britain each year.