Removal of ovaries improves sex

Women who are fearful that an impending hysterectomy will affect their libido can draw comfort from a new study which shows that their sex lives are likely to improve enormously after the operation.

Sex ‘better after hysterectomy’
October 3, 2003 - 10:05AM

Women who are fearful that an impending hysterectomy will affect their libido can draw comfort from a new study which shows that their sex lives are likely to improve enormously after the operation.

Hysterectomy - the removal of the womb and ovaries - is commonly thought to affect sexual pleasure because the operation disrupts the nerve supply to the vagina and pubic area and rearranges the pelvic floor.

But the first large-scale study to test whether this assumption is true has found that in fact sexual well being improves after the surgery.

It enrolled 352 Dutchwomen who underwent hysterectomy for a benign disease of the uterus. They filled out a 36-question interview sheet both before and six months after surgery.

“Sexual pleasure significantly improved in all patients, independent of the type of hysterectomy,” the study says.

Before the operation, it notes, all of the respondents reported having problems attaining orgasm. That number fell by three-quarters after the operation.

There were similarly huge improvements in arousal, genital sensation and lubrication.

The study was led by Jan-Paul Roovers of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University Medical Centre, Utrecht. It appears in next Saturday’s issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), published by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Hysterectomy is the most common major gynaecological operation in Britain and the United States.

In the Netherlands, the authors say, 32 per cent of women will need a hysterectomy during their lifetime.