Hysterectomy and medical financial hardship among U.S. women

Objective

Hysterectomy is one of the common surgical procedures for women in the United States. Studies show that hysterectomy is associated with elevated risk of developing chronic conditions, which may cause financial toxicity in patients. This study aimed to assess whether women who underwent hysterectomy had a higher risk of experiencing medical financial hardship compared to women who didn’t.

Methods

Using data on 32,823 adult women from the 2019 and 2021 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, we estimated binomial and multinomial logistic regressions to assess the relationship between hysterectomy and financial hardship, defined as problems paying or unable to pay any medical bills. Further, we performed a Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) decomposition to examine whether the association could be explained by chronic comorbidity.

Results

While the prevalence of financial hardship was 13.6 % among all women, it was 16.2 % among women who underwent a hysterectomy. The adjusted odds of experiencing medical financial hardship among women with a hysterectomy were 1.36 (95 % CI: 1.22–1.52) times that of their counterparts who did not have a hysterectomy. The KHB decomposition suggested that 34.5 % of the size of the effect was attributable to chronic conditions. Women who had a hysterectomy were also 1.45 (95 % CI: 1.26–1.67) times more likely to have unpaid medical debts.

Conclusions

Our results suggested that women, who underwent a hysterectomy in the US, were vulnerable to medical financial hardship. Policy makers and health professionals should be made aware of this issue to help women coping against this adversity.