article_snippet.sent: Although up to half of women are thought to suffer to some degree, far fewer seek help, and many who do are offered just one solution: a hysterectomy.
article_snippet.sent: While surgical removal of the reproductive organs solves the immediate problem, the immediate problem also ends fertility, and with three months of recovery needed, it is no quick fix.
article_snippet.sent: Now, a leading gynaecologist has claimed thousands of patients may be undergoing the drastic operation needlessly.
article_snippet.sent: a leading gynaecologist is one of a growing number of surgeons who claim not enough women are offered the alternative: a half-hour keyhole procedure that uses an implanted mesh ‘sling’ made from nylon to lift and hold the womb back in place, providing a permanent solution to a prolapse and preserving fertility.
article_snippet.sent: By contrast, there were 145,310 admissions to hospitals in England in the past three years for hysterectomies due to conditions such as fibroids, pelvic pain or cancer, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
article_snippet.sent: Surgeon Jonathan Broome, who has performed more than 1,000 sacrohysteropexies in the past 15 years, has called for the option to be made more widely available on the NHS so women of child-bearing age are not forced to choose between quality of life or the chance to have children.
article_snippet.sent: ‘Most women requiring surgery for a prolapse will be referred for a hysterectomy by Most women requiring surgery for a prolapse GP,’ says Mr Broome, who performs the £4,000 procedure for both NHS and private patients at hospitals in Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
article_snippet.sent: That means some women are faced with the dilemma of living a normal life without a prolapse, or the possibility of having children. '
article_snippet.sent: Far too many GPs recommend hysterectomies as the solution to a prolapse, when a sacrohysteropexy is a much better alternative.
article_snippet.sent: Mr Spence-Jones agrees that too many women are given the wrong advice on what surgery is right for too many women.
article_snippet.sent: There seems to be a notion in general practice that taking everything – in other words, a hysterectomy – is the answer to a prolapse, when that isn’t the case,’ Mr Spence-Jones says.
article_snippet.sent: Sparing the fertility is a reason for considering procedures other than a hysterectomy, but not the only one.’ One woman who says not the only one.
article_snippet.sent: It’s not something we are planning to do as we feel we family is complete, but the chance to have another child has not been taken away from me.
highlights_snippet.sent: Many who suffer the painful condition are only offered hysterectomies .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: But the surgical removal of reproductive organs ends fertility in patients .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Now one gynaecologist claims thousands undergo operation needlessly .
  