PREVENTION OF OVARIAN-CANCER - A SURVEY OF THE PRACTICE OF PROPHYLACTIC OOPHORECTOMY BY CONSULTANT GYNECOLOGISTS IN IRELAND

The aim of this study was to investigate attitudes to prophylactic oop horectomy among practicing consultant gynaecologists in Ireland, An an onymous questionnaire was sent to 90 practicing consultants, A total o f 68 replies were received (76%), Of these, the number who said they w ould remove apparently normal ovaries at the time of abdominal hystere ctomy from premenopausal women in age groups <35, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49 and >49 years was 0 (0%), 0 (0%), 4 (6%), 29 (43%), and 46 (68%) respe ctively; and from postmenopausal women 60 (88%), Only 2 (3%) routinely considered oophorectomy when performing a vaginal hysterectomy, The m ajority of respondents said that (i) they would prescribe hormone repl acement therapy in premenopausal oophorectomised women (98.5%); (ii) t hey did not consider unilateral oophorectomy to have a role in the pre vention of ovarian cancer (84%); and (iii) they routinely discussed th e question of prophylactic oophorectomy with their patients preoperati vely (82%), Only 19 (27%) believed that the established figure of 10-1 5% of ovarian cancers could be prevented by oophorectomy at the time o f hysterectomy for benign disease, 43 (63%) would perform prophylactic oophorectomy as a primary surgical procedure in women with a strong f amily history of ovarian carcinoma.