HYSTERECTOMY INCREASES THE SYMPTOMATOLOGY OF POSTMENOPAUSAL SYNDROME

The purpose of our investigation teas to verify whether or not women w ho have undergone hysterectomy react differently to the menopause comp ared with women who have not. The study was performed in a prospective documentation on 203 women, and the assessments of discomforts were p rovided by the patients themselves using questionnaires. For statistic al purposes, the Mann-Whitney test and chi(2) test were used. In both groups of patients - with and without hysterectomy - a determination w as made concerning the significance of differences in the degree of in tensity of problems: breast tension (p < 0.05), muscle pains (P < 0.05 ), palpitations (p < 0.05) and dizziness (p < 0.01). Concerning the fr equency of climacteric symptoms a significant difference was noted for urogenital ailments. While only 29.6% of women who had not been opera ted on complained about discomfort caused by atrophy of the urogenital tract, the number of women with such discomfort who had had a hystere ctomy was 42.6% ip < 0.01). In other words, women who underwent hyster ectomy suffered more discomfort and showed frequent symptoms of urogen ital atrophy.