To prevent cancer, more women should consider removing fallopian tubes, experts say
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February 2, 2023
JENN ACKERMAN, New York Times
Monica Monfre Scantlebury of St. Paul had multiple surgeries after discovering she carried a genetic mutation that raised the risk of ovarian and breast cancer; "I am named after my grandmother, and I believe the surgery prevented me from having the same obituary as her," she said.
There is no reliable screening test for ovarian cancer, so doctors urge women at high genetic risk for the disease to have their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed once they are done having children, usually around the age of 40.
On Wednesday, a leading research and advocacy organization broadened that recommendation in ways that may surprise many women.
Building on evidence that most of these cancers originate in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance is urging even women who do not have mutations - that is, most women - to have their fallopian tubes surgically removed if they are finished having children and are planning a gynecologic operation anyway.
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