Weight linked to hysterectomy

Overweight and obese middle-aged women have a higher risk of hysterectomy than underweight and normal-weight women, a new study has found.

Greater increases of weight between the ages of 36 to 53 were also found to carry increased rates of hysterectomy in later life.

Researchers studied data from the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) national survey of health and development (NSHD); a group of 5,362 men and women followed up since their births in March 1946.

At all ages of body mass index (BMI) measurement, women who were underweight had lower rates of hysterectomy than those with a higher BMI.

Women who were overweight had higher rates of hysterectomy than those of normal weight from the age of 36, while women who were obese had higher rates than those of normal weight from the age of 43.

The results suggested that there was no correlation between BMI in childhood and subsequent hysterectomy but women who were overweight in their 20s and 30s who gained more weight than others in midlife were more likely to have a hysterectomy.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Rachel Cooper of MRC research team cautioned: “These findings relate to women born in the early post war period. The relationship between weight and hysterectomy may not be the same among women born more recently.”