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Health Conditions That Can Lead to a Hysterectomy
By: Jennifer Landis
Many health conditions can lead to a hysterectomy. Except for uterine cancer, most have other treatment options prior to resorting to surgery.
A hysterectomy, or the surgical removal of the uterus, is one of the most common surgeries performed on women. It is second only to the cesarean section.
Half a million of these procedures happen every year. Many different conditions may necessitate surgical intervention like a hysterectomy, whether it be full or partial. Here are some of them.
Conditions that can lead to a hysterectomy
1. Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
Pelvic inflammatory disease, or PID, is a bacterial infection of the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. It occurs when bacteria travels up into the reproductive tract from the vagina.
Although the classic symptom of PID is pelvic pain, in many women it may not cause any symptoms initially. In fact, you might not even realize you have PID until you have trouble conceiving or develop pelvic pain.
A hysterectomy is usually the last thing a doctor will recommend to treat PID, but for cases where the infection doesn’t respond to antibiotics or other treatments, it…