4 ms·

>"The researchers found that black women have a mortality rate of 10.1 per 100,000. For white women, the rate is 4.7 per 100,000. Past estimates had those rates

by dmurray 10y ago

>"The researchers found that black women have a mortality rate of 10.1 per 100,000. For white women, the rate is 4.7 per 100,000. Past estimates had those rates at 5.7 and 3.2, respectively." Let's check the numbers here. 5.7 per 100,000 is 10.1 per 177,000. The rate of cervical cancer among black women with intact cervices is given as 10.1 per 100,000, and the change in estimate is ascribed solely to changing the methodology to consider only women with cervices, so 77,000 of that 177,000 had hysterectomies, or 43%. The corresponding number for white women is 30%. This number seems far too high. I can't find a reliable source for the US, but [0] says "up to a fifth of women have had their womb removed by the age of 55" in the UK. Is the rate of hysterectomies really 43% for black women, or is someone lying about the statistics? [0]https://www.womens-health-concern.org/help-and-advice/factsheets/hysterectomy/ https://www.womens-health-concern.org/help-and-advice/factsh...

Someone 10y ago
It's probably too simplistic to be the explanation, but I think they must have overlooked some huge effect rather than many smaller ones that mostly work in the same direction, so, at the risk of making a fool of myself: could it be that a large fraction of people with cervical cancer have their cervix removed but still die from cervical cancer because their cancer already has metastized? (That would imply that a significant fraction of those dying from cervical cancer don't have a cervix at the moment they die)
stormbrew 10y ago
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8414322 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8414322 is a study that shows a difference in the rate of hysterectomy, but not quite so dramatic of one as that. But it seems there's a lot of evidence that black women have hysterectomies at a higher rate than white women.
coredog64 10y ago
At one point, it was so common for an African-American woman to get an involuntary hysterectomy that it got its own euphemism: The Mississippi Appendectomy [0] [0] https://mississippiappendectomy.wordpress.com/about/ https://mississippiappendectomy.wordpress.com/about/ (That's the first result from big G, but you should be able to find more were you so inclined).
- 08-15 10y ago
  Come on! All people who got their womb removed in the 1920s and 30s are dead now. They don't affect any statistics anymore, especially not those concerning women who had their womb removed by the age of 55. I agree with GP, a rate of >40% hysterectomies sounds unbelievable.
  - Retric 10y ago
    Someone born in 1924 would be 15 in 1939 and ~93 today. So, not everyone that got it in the 30's would be dead. However, "A hysterectomy is the second most common surgery among women in the United States. The most common surgery in women is childbirth by cesarean delivery (C-section). Each year in the United States, nearly 500,000 women get hysterectomies" so it really is common. Over 50 years that would be around 25 million women. Total female population is ~160 million or around 16%. But you only really care about adult women which would have higher rates. So, a baseline of 20% with some sub populations being 2x higher seems completely believable.
  - rabboRubble 10y ago
    You would like to think that forced sterilization is an old timey problem. It's not. The state of California forcibly sterilized ~150 female inmates as late as 2010 [0]. More to read up on... [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#Unite... [1] http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterilization/ http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterili... Edit: would love to know why this post was down voted. Is there a wellspring of support for sterilization without consent? Completely mystified at this point.

by dmurray 10y ago

Someone 10y ago

It's probably too simplistic to be the explanation, but I think they must have overlooked some huge effect rather than many smaller ones that mostly work in the same direction, so, at the risk of making a fool of myself: could it be that a large fraction of people with cervical cancer have their cervix removed but still die from cervical cancer because their cancer already has metastized? (That would imply that a significant fraction of those dying from cervical cancer don't have a cervix at the moment they die)

stormbrew 10y ago

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8414322 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8414322 is a study that shows a difference in the rate of hysterectomy, but not quite so dramatic of one as that. But it seems there's a lot of evidence that black women have hysterectomies at a higher rate than white women.

coredog64 10y ago

At one point, it was so common for an African-American woman to get an involuntary hysterectomy that it got its own euphemism: The Mississippi Appendectomy [0] [0] https://mississippiappendectomy.wordpress.com/about/ https://mississippiappendectomy.wordpress.com/about/ (That's the first result from big G, but you should be able to find more were you so inclined).

08-15 10y ago
Come on! All people who got their womb removed in the 1920s and 30s are dead now. They don't affect any statistics anymore, especially not those concerning women who had their womb removed by the age of 55. I agree with GP, a rate of >40% hysterectomies sounds unbelievable.
- Retric 10y ago
  Someone born in 1924 would be 15 in 1939 and ~93 today. So, not everyone that got it in the 30's would be dead. However, "A hysterectomy is the second most common surgery among women in the United States. The most common surgery in women is childbirth by cesarean delivery (C-section). Each year in the United States, nearly 500,000 women get hysterectomies" so it really is common. Over 50 years that would be around 25 million women. Total female population is ~160 million or around 16%. But you only really care about adult women which would have higher rates. So, a baseline of 20% with some sub populations being 2x higher seems completely believable.
- rabboRubble 10y ago
  You would like to think that forced sterilization is an old timey problem. It's not. The state of California forcibly sterilized ~150 female inmates as late as 2010 [0]. More to read up on... [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#Unite... [1] http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterilization/ http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/forced-sterili... Edit: would love to know why this post was down voted. Is there a wellspring of support for sterilization without consent? Completely mystified at this point.