Is ovarian cancer still possible after a hysterectomy?

Answer From Tatnai Burnett, M.D.

Yes. You still have a risk of ovarian cancer or a type of cancer that acts just like it (peritoneal cancer) if you've had a hysterectomy.

Your risk depends on the type of hysterectomy you had:

  • Partial hysterectomy or total hysterectomy. A partial hysterectomy removes your uterus, and a total hysterectomy removes your uterus and your cervix. Both procedures leave your ovaries intact, so you can still develop ovarian cancer.
  • Total hysterectomy with salpingo-oophorectomy. This procedure removes your cervix and uterus as well as both ovaries and fallopian tubes. This makes ovarian cancer less likely to occur, but it does not remove all risk.

    You still have a small risk of peritoneal cancer. The peritoneum is a covering that lines the abdominal organs and is close to the ovaries. Cells in the peritoneum are very similar to cells in the ovaries. When cancer happens in the peritoneum, it looks and acts like ovarian cancer.

If you're concerned about your risk of cancer, discuss it with your health care provider.

With

Tatnai Burnett, M.D.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox

Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health. Click here for an email preview.

To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.

April 12, 2022 See more Expert Answers