Is Hysterectomy a New Threat for Indian Women?

Trupti Meher , International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Now-a-days hysterectomy is one of the major public health issues. In India, women’s attitudes toward menstruation remain a significant driver in seeking hysterectomy. Therefore, this paper attempted to study the prevalence, associated factors and reasons for hysterectomy among ever-married women aged 15-49 years, using the data from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted during 2015-16 in India. Appropriate univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to carry out the results. This analysis of 540,671 ever-married Indian women revealed that the prevalence of hysterectomy was 4.1 percent. The prevalence was highest in the southern region and lowest in the north-eastern regions of India. In this study, the factors like high parity, high body mass index, older age, early age at first cohabitation, illiteracy were increasing the likelihood of hysterectomy. Excessive menstrual bleeding was found to be the leading reason for hysterectomy in this sample. Hysterectomy has exhibited an upward trend over the years. This may exert adverse effects on the physical, socio-psychological and reproductive health of women. Therefore, it is essential to promote a high quality prevention and treatment choices for women rather than permanent but potentially inappropriate solutions.

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 Presented in Session P2. Poster Session Ageing, Health and Mortality