Avoiding Unnecessary Hysterectomy & Finding the Right Surgeon

Hysterectomy is performed on 600,000 women each year in the United States, but is it always necessary? Is it being over-performed? 1 in 3 women will undergo the procedure by age of 60. Today many ailments- cancer, debilitating fibroids (non-cancerous growths in the muscle of your uterus), abnormal bleeding- can lead a doctor to recommend a hysterectomy. Many surgeons argue that the surgery is being over-performed and over-prescribed, especially for certain conditions such as fibroids- particularly to women of color. Black women are four times as likely to be have a hysterectomy than white women.

Hysterectomy is surgical procedure to remove the uterus. Hysterectomy is commonly used to treat a number of health conditions from fibroids and uterine prolapse (when the uterus sags down toward or into the vagina) to abnormal uterine bleeding, gynecologic cancers, chronic pelvic pain, and even endometriosis, according to American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Three types of hysterectomies are being performed today.

Supra-cervical hysterectomy, where only the part of the uterus is removed.

Total hysterectomy, where the entire uterus along with the cervix is removed.

Radical Hysterectomy, where a total hysterectomy can be removed along with the fallopian tubes and ovaries, usually for cancer.

Removing the uterus also displaces the adjacent organs like the urinary bladder and rectum leading to herniation of these organs in 12% of women undergoing hysterectomy. Women may experience urinary and fecal incontinence and possibly kidney dysfunction. These consequences of hysterectomy are sometimes not discussed.

40% of women are never offered alternatives to hysterectomy. Alternatives to hysterectomy especially for abnormal bleeding or fibroids include:

Medical therapy to control bleeding.

Endometrial ablation, where the lining of the uterus is removed.

Uterine artery embolization, where a procedure is performed to block off the blood supply to part of the uterus.

Myomectomy involves removal of the bleeding fibroids and leaving the uterus intact.

How do women receive the quality care they deserve?

What if you had a personal concierge to help you understand your condition, treatment and side effects from treatment?

What if you could obtain other surgical opinions, without missing work and running from office to office?

What if there was an electronic system to send your medical records and imaging studies to multiple surgeons in your area, in a safe and secure manner?

Surgeons could then validate that the procedure was necessary and recommend alternatives to hysterectomy surgery.

What if we went one step further, and the surgeons were also asked to report their past experience with the procedure such as:

Number of hysterectomy surgeries they performed last year,
Number of patients with successful surgeries
Number of patients who experienced complications such as blood loss requiring transfusion, heart attack, acute pulmonary failure, acute blood clots, pneumonia, stroke and sepsis.

What if the surgeons and their facilities also reported all-inclusive pricing, giving you opportunities for zero-deductible options should you choose surgery?

What if you could choose your surgeon based on your cost, surgeon’s success rates and complication rates?

That system now exists and is called SurgiQuality

urgiQuality connects you with a personalized concierge who gathers your medical records and uploads them to the HIPAA-compliant cloud for distribution to multiple surgeons.

You choose your surgeon based on cost and surgeon’s past experience and make a well-informed decision.

Simply download the SurgiQuality app on Apple App Store or Google Play Store, sign-up and let our concierge team do the rest.