After removal of any woman's ovaries, the loss of androgens may compound the reduction of sexual pleasure by reducing sexual desire. If you do need a hysterectomy, you generally should not have your ovaries removed unless you have ovarian or cervical cancer. That's down from a decade ago, but still well above the estimated 12 to 14 percent that are medically justified. Most cesarean sections are done because labor is progressing too slowly. Hospitals that adopt such steps have cut their rate of C-sections in half.
Doctors perform cesareans in about three-fourths of women who previously had the procedure.
The rest simply switch to cesarean delivery when the vaginal attempt fails. Continuous electronic monitoring of the fetal heartbeat, used in nearly three-fourths of all births, is actually part of the problem. It triples the chance of having a cesarean, by picking up worrisome signs that are often normal. Continuous monitoring does not protect the infant any better than intermittent electronic or even old-fashioned stethoscopic monitoring. To avoid an unnecessary cesarean, find out what percentage of normal births, or births following a cesarean, your obstetrician delivers by cesarean.