Diabetes mellitus risk after hysterectomy: A population-based retrospective cohort study

We explored whether hysterectomy with or without bilateral oophorectomy was associated with the increasing incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in an East Asian population. This was a retrospective population-based cohort study that analyzed DM risk in Taiwanese women, using a health insurance research database of 1998 to 2013 containing nearly 1 million people. We identified 7088 women aged 30 to 49 years who had undergone hysterectomy with or without oophorectomy. The comparison group included 27,845 women without a hysterectomy who were randomly selected from the population and matched to women in the hysterectomy group by age (exact year) and year of the surgery. DM comorbidities were identified. The incidence and hazard ratios for DM were calculated with Cox proportional hazard regression models. The median ages of patients in the hysterectomy and comparison groups were both approximately 44 years. After a median 7.1 years of follow-up, the incidence of DM was 40% higher in the hysterectomized women as compared with the comparisons (9.12 vs 6.78/1000 person-years, P < .001), with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 1.37 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.23 –1.52). However, the DM risk was not increased in the women with hysterectomy plus oophorectomy (aHR=1.28, 95% CI = 0.93–1.76). Furthermore, among women aged 30 to 39 years, 40 to 49 years, the risk in hysterectomized women was higher than the comparisons (aHR = 1.75, 95% CI = 1.27–2.41; aHR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.19–1.49, respectively). Our study provides essential and novel evidence for the association between hysterectomy and DM risk in women aged 30 to 49 years, which is relevant to these women and their physicians. Physicians should be aware of the increased DM risk associated with hysterectomy and take this into consideration when evaluating a patient for a hysterectomy. The current results might help gynecologists prevent DM and encourage diagnostic and preventive interventions in appropriate patients.