I think most people would agree that during the development of young girl to woman the ovaries play an important role. This is commonly accepted knowledge. Without ovaries the woman would not be able to have children and develop appropriate bone density. After menopause the ovaries are useless.....right?
WRONG!!!
It didn't take much investigation to come up with amazing reasons to keep your ovaries, ladies. This article doesn't have to be just for ladies, because I think the entire public should be aware that these organs provide life sustaining purpose in a woman's body even after menopause is complete.
I think the first and most basic thing I want to address is that menopause itself is a long drawn out process. Most women take a number of years in perimenopause all the way through to complete menopause and are not aware of the intricate process that is going on inside of their bodies. They are mostly aware of the outward signs of menopause. Menopause can be extremely uncomfortable for some women as they go through this life changing process that lasts years. It is quite dramatic and ridiculously stressful on the body to go through the entire process of menopause in a moment. The body usually has years to slowly prepare itself for the lessening of estrogen and during surgical menopause it is suddenly shocked into menopause. This is not an easy or laughable condition.
Now the real news! Did you know that the ovary still produces hormones after you complete menopause? It's true. I have found some articles or websites for you to check out to read specifically and below I have listed some quotations from other sources that explain in short what I am talking about.
"It sounds logical to remove our ovaries to prevent <possibility of ovarian> cancer <as a precaution during hysterectomy>, but as you will discover in thie oh so-important chapter, gals, you must absolutely not surrender your ovaries unless you and your physician decide the benefits outweigh the risks. Why? Because as you will learn, scientists (two of whom I interview in this chapter) now know, that even after menopause our ovaries continue to produce small amounts of hormone that protect our vital organs against disease…diseases such as heart attack, stroke and lung cancer. Up until a few years ago, it was standard practice to remove a woman’s ovaries during hysterectomy to definitively prevent her from developing ovarian cancer. Although that was a reasonable approach at the time, we now know so much more about the connection between ovary removal and disease, even death, and quite frankly, not enough women are aware of this."
- See more at: Don't Ova-React / The Unhysterectomy
"The primary reason: Getting rid of ovaries may very well do away with the risk of ovarian cancer, but it increases our chances of developing heart disease—which is a far more common killer. "The fact is that you are about 30 times more likely to die of heart disease than you are of ovarian cancer. So if you’re looking at odds, you’re generally better off keeping your ovaries,” says Parker, who is also the author of A Gynecologist’s Second Opinion."
"What, you may wonder, is the ovary-heart connection? And what can ovaries possbily do but cause trouble after we’ve gone through menopause? Here’s the explanation in a nutshell: While our ovaries might produce a diminishing amount of estrogen after we go through menopause, they continue to produce testosterone and androstenedione, which still provide crucial protection against heart disease. (Never mind that testosterone also helps preserve our sex drive, bolster energy levels and maintain lean body tissue.) Women in Parker’s study who did not take any therapeutic estrogen after their ovaries were removed faced an even higher risk of heart disease and stroke. Not for nothing, women who had bilateral oopherectomy along with their hysterectomy also had higher rates of lung cancer, according to Parker’s research,"
I really hope that you take the time to read this information below as it has a lot of technical details that will help you understand the use of these vital organs.
WRONG!!!
It didn't take much investigation to come up with amazing reasons to keep your ovaries, ladies. This article doesn't have to be just for ladies, because I think the entire public should be aware that these organs provide life sustaining purpose in a woman's body even after menopause is complete.
I think the first and most basic thing I want to address is that menopause itself is a long drawn out process. Most women take a number of years in perimenopause all the way through to complete menopause and are not aware of the intricate process that is going on inside of their bodies. They are mostly aware of the outward signs of menopause. Menopause can be extremely uncomfortable for some women as they go through this life changing process that lasts years. It is quite dramatic and ridiculously stressful on the body to go through the entire process of menopause in a moment. The body usually has years to slowly prepare itself for the lessening of estrogen and during surgical menopause it is suddenly shocked into menopause. This is not an easy or laughable condition.
Now the real news! Did you know that the ovary still produces hormones after you complete menopause? It's true. I have found some articles or websites for you to check out to read specifically and below I have listed some quotations from other sources that explain in short what I am talking about.
"It sounds logical to remove our ovaries to prevent <possibility of ovarian> cancer <as a precaution during hysterectomy>, but as you will discover in thie oh so-important chapter, gals, you must absolutely not surrender your ovaries unless you and your physician decide the benefits outweigh the risks. Why? Because as you will learn, scientists (two of whom I interview in this chapter) now know, that even after menopause our ovaries continue to produce small amounts of hormone that protect our vital organs against disease…diseases such as heart attack, stroke and lung cancer. Up until a few years ago, it was standard practice to remove a woman’s ovaries during hysterectomy to definitively prevent her from developing ovarian cancer. Although that was a reasonable approach at the time, we now know so much more about the connection between ovary removal and disease, even death, and quite frankly, not enough women are aware of this."
- See more at: Don't Ova-React / The Unhysterectomy
"The primary reason: Getting rid of ovaries may very well do away with the risk of ovarian cancer, but it increases our chances of developing heart disease—which is a far more common killer. "The fact is that you are about 30 times more likely to die of heart disease than you are of ovarian cancer. So if you’re looking at odds, you’re generally better off keeping your ovaries,” says Parker, who is also the author of A Gynecologist’s Second Opinion."
"What, you may wonder, is the ovary-heart connection? And what can ovaries possbily do but cause trouble after we’ve gone through menopause? Here’s the explanation in a nutshell: While our ovaries might produce a diminishing amount of estrogen after we go through menopause, they continue to produce testosterone and androstenedione, which still provide crucial protection against heart disease. (Never mind that testosterone also helps preserve our sex drive, bolster energy levels and maintain lean body tissue.) Women in Parker’s study who did not take any therapeutic estrogen after their ovaries were removed faced an even higher risk of heart disease and stroke. Not for nothing, women who had bilateral oopherectomy along with their hysterectomy also had higher rates of lung cancer, according to Parker’s research,"
I really hope that you take the time to read this information below as it has a lot of technical details that will help you understand the use of these vital organs.
Women Who Keep Ovaries Live Longer / NY Times Article
To my women friends: I hope that you spread this news around. There are some doctors out there that haven't gotten the updates and don't understand that the ovaries do really provide necessary life sustaining hormones to women after menopause. This is not to say that there are real and legitimate reasons to remove ovaries at times. The purpose of this post was to educate, so that women can make a well informed decision.
To my men friends... talk to your wife about this and your daughters, but probably not other women.... that would just be creepy.
