What Is a Hysterectomy?

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Narrator
When should a hysterectomy be performed?

Laura Corio, MD
You know hysterectomies were done almost on every woman back twenty years ago, it was like, oh, you need a hysterectomy. Today, I look at a hysterectomy done when a patient has severe bleeding from fibroids that cannot be controlled in any other way. She's tried medication, she's tried birth control pills, she's tried possibly even ablation or a D&C. She's bleeding, she's anemic, the fibroids are the cause, she may need a hysterectomy. Someone who has enlarging fibroids, they are just getting bigger and bigger. There is embolization, which could decrease your fibroids by 60%, however some women do not respond to it, or they are not wanting to do an embolization and they may need a hysterectomy. And of course, women that have uterine cancer or have some other form of, ovarian cancer possibly may even need a hysterectomy. But I think that birth control pills sometimes can be used instead to control abnormal bleeding. There are other options out there first. I think it should be your last resort.