Thousands of women are undergoing unnecessary hysterectomies, leading health advisers have warned. They say that a new, simpler technique - which can be carried out in outpatient clinics - could in many cases replace the operation.
The procedure would save the NHS £30 million a year, according to the government's health rationing body, Nice (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence), but it could also transform the lives of women who suffer from menorrhagia - heavy menstrual bleeding.
The standard technique for dealing with the condition is a hysterectomy - removal of the woman's womb, even if it is healthy. The operation carries the risk of serious complications, with a hospital stay of a week and a recovery period of months.
The new technique, endometrial ablation, uses heat technology to destroy the lining of the womb without surgery. The operation can be performed in an outpatient clinic, allowing patients to return home the same day.
'Too many women are either too embarrassed to seek help or are suffering the discomfort of menorrhagia for fear of having a healthy womb removed,' Nazar Amso, a consultant at the University Hospital of Wales, told The Observer. 'Yet there are safer, less invasive options.'
Doctors estimate that up to one in five women suffers from menorrhagia. 'I used to bleed heavily for 23 days a month,' said one patient, nurse Carole Senior. 'My life was a misery, my sex life and social life suffered and I became tired and fed up.'
Ablation techniques cost around £600. One method - Hydro ThermAblation - involves hot saline water being pumped into the womb and left for 10 minutes.
More than 95 per cent of patients treated with the method reported that their bleeding reduced significantly. However, only a few hospitals offer ablation techniques for dealing with menorrhagia.
Consultant gynaecologist David Griffiths, at Swindon's Great Western Hospital, said: 'The trouble is that a woman undergoing a hysterectomy uses up a hospital bed for a week at least. Then she is off work for months. By contrast, they could be back at work a couple of days after ablation treatment.'
