Would having my ovaries removed help me gain hormonal stability?

Question: “I had a partial hysterectomy in 2012 where my uterus and tubes were removed. I find I am still having the extreme highs and lows of having a period. Would removing my ovaries help with this to gain stability?”

Answer from Dr. Daniel Gruber, urogynecologist from Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington D.C., part of John Hopkins medicine. 

Well, this is a somewhat complex question, but it really depends on your age. In general, we don’t recommend taking the ovaries out for hormonal stability. If you are premenopausal, your hormones are going through the ups and downs that they naturally will do. Having had a hysterectomy, you won’t have the bleeding or cramping or those kinds of symptoms as far as periods are concerned. However, in general we do not recommend taking ovaries out for this particular reason. 

There are other methods that you can use such as birth control pills. If you are going to do birth control pills, do it in a continuous form. This means that you don’t take the placebo for the week, so you continue to take the medication all the way through. This is usually the first line thing that can help stabilize hormonal fluctuations. 

If you are perimenopausal, meaning you’re right around menopause (typically the average age is around 51), then you can either use the birth control pills, or there’s other types of things like hormonal replacement  that can help you with your fluctuations. 

So, it really kind of depends on your situation. I definitely recommend going to see your general OB/GYN as they deal with this very commonly. Alternatively, the Physician Finder tool can help you find a pelvic specialist in your region.