Understanding hysterectomies: Sexual satisfaction and quality of life

Carol Anderson Darling, Yvonne M. McKoy‐Smith
In: Journal of Sex Research · 1993 · vol. 30(4) , pp. 324–335 · doi:10.1080/00224499309551719 · W1972486443
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 6 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study examined quality of life and sexual satisfaction in women who had and had not undergone hysterectomy, finding no difference in quality of life but greater perceived sexual satisfaction in those who had the procedure.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Because a hysterectomy is one of the more frequently performed surgical procedures in the U.S., we used a causal model to study those women who had and had not experienced a hysterectomy. Using family stress theory, we examined the quality of life of these two groups of women as it was related to physiological and psychological health stressors, family stress, resources, meaning of the stressors, and the perceived sexual satisfaction. A survey research design was employed with a national random sample of women (N = 346) between the ages of 45 and 60 who were members of an association of college‐educated women. Research instruments included the Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes Scale, Women's Health Questionnaire, Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scale, Index of Sexual Satisfaction, and Generalized Life Contentment Scale. There was no significant difference in the quality of life of those women who had and had not experienced a hysterectomy, but women who had a hysterectomy perceived greater sexual satisfaction than those who had not experienced a hysterectomy. For those women who had experienced a hysterectomy, the proposed model indicated that psychological health stress, family stress, and the meaning of the stressors had the greatest total association with the quality of life. The greatest total relationships to quality of life for those women who had not experienced a hysterectomy were psychological and physiological health stressors, but not family stress. An important implication of this investigation is the need to understand further the role of physiological and psychological health stressors, as well as family stress, in the lives of women.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (45)

Cited by (6)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-02T02:00:03.124865+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK