The study released in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology says "women and their doctors should be less reflexive about removing the ovaries during a hysterectomy and more aware of the benefits that ovaries continue to provide well into middle age."
"While this study is certainly not definitive," the journal says, "It is sure to provide significant impact upon clinical practice." Doctors' conversations with older women about ovary removal used to be "brief and pointed. This is no longer likely to be the case."
"Nine percent fewer women whose ovaries had been removed between ages 50 and 54 lived to see their 80th birthdays than did those who had hysterectomies during those years but who had kept their ovaries. As many as 18,000 women a year may die prematurely because of ovarian surgery, said Dr. William H. Parker, the study's lead author.
