Surgery for abnormal uterine bleeding at Sørlandet Hospital

Abnormal uterine bleeding affects 15-20 % of women of reproductive age and is a common indication for surgery. The aim of this study was to describe the extent of surgical intervention and the choice of surgical procedure among premenopausal women with this condition and to identify factors associated with hysterectomy.

Women aged ≤ 55 years who had contact with Sørlandet Hospital between 1. January 2011 and 31 December 2021 due to benign abnormal uterine bleeding (ICD-10 diagnosis codes N92.0-N92.6) were identified. Following data extraction from electronic patient records using a structured query language, the data were analysed using descriptive statistics.

Of 4947 women with abnormal uterine bleeding, 2278 (46 %) underwent surgery. Of these, 1830 (80 %) had one procedure, 415 (18 %) had two and 33 (1 %) had three. Thermal endometrial ablation was the most common initial procedure (902 of 2278, 40 %), while hysterectomy was performed on 649 women (28 %). Fibroids, pain and anaemia were associated with hysterectomy, but age was not.

Over an 11-year period, almost half of the patients with benign abnormal uterine bleeding underwent surgery. More than a quarter of these had a hysterectomy. Our findings suggest that the overall symptom burden, in addition to the amount of menstrual blood loss, is associated with the likelihood of undergoing hysterectomy.