Hysterectomy not tied to greater depression risk?

This article has made the media rounds. If something is repeated often enough it will be believed.

HERS Response is awaiting 'approval' as of the date and time of this post. This is the HERS Foundation's response to this "study":

Among my observations of flaws in this study is the disparity in the number of female subjects. There were 1,793, of women with intact female organs, and only 76 women with hysterectomy alone, and 101 women whose uterus and ovaries had been removed. You need an e
qual number of women in each group to have a meaningful statistical result.

I object to the use of obscure and incorrect medical language. Surgical menopause, or surgically induced menopause, is an oxymoron. An intact menopausal woman has functioning a uterus and ovaries. The uterus continues to be a hormone responsive sex organ that provides structural support to the bladder and bowel all of a woman's life. The ovaries continue to produce hormones, albeit in different quantity, into advanced age.

The following is the Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services (HERS) Foundation's study on the effects of hysterectomy reported by 1,000 women. HERS did not ask whether women if they were depressed after hysterectomy, they asked questions that would be revealing of depression, and found the following occurred after hysterectomy:

Hysterectomy only               Hysterectomy/ovaries

Suicidal thoughts 53%       -      Suicidal thoughts 54%
Suicide Attempt 9%           -      Suicide Attempt 10%
Personality change 76%     -      Personality change 80%
Loss of sexual desire 66%   -      Loss of sexual desire 80%
Loss of orgasm 54%           -      Loss of orgasm 63%

The full report of the effects of hysterectomy can be read at http://www.hersfoundation.com/effects.html.

Nora W. Coffey
President, HERS Foundation