On July 25th, the New York Times published an article called “Risks: Ovary Removal Linked to Increased Lung Cancer”.

The new study, done at the University of Montreal, indicates that there is a detrimental relationship between women having their ovaries removed as part of a hysterectomy, and lung cancer. The reasoning for this appears to be linked with hormone levels in women. The researchers discovered that “women whose menopause had been induced medically were at 1.92 times greater risk of developing lung cancer than women who had experienced natural menopause.” (N.B. early menopause is one of the side effects of hysterectomy).

Although this finding came as a shock to the scientists at the University of Montreal, this is not the first study that has shown that keeping your ovaries is beneficial to your health. A study, which was published in the journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology this past May, indicated that “women who had hysterectomies, but kept their ovaries, lived longer than women who had the procedure but whose ovaries were removed.”

To read the article in full, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/health/24ovary.html?_r=2