Every year some 600,000 American women undergo hysterectomies, a number that has not declined in 10 years despite the development, in that time, of safe, effective noninvasive procedures for women suffering from noncancerous conditions. Peg Rosen looks at the reasons why ob-gyns continue to perform this often unnecessary procedure. She concludes that ob-gyns have little incentive to retrain and modernize; they continue to perform the procedures they find the most familiar and comfortable, rather than those that could make treatment easier and less painful for their patients.
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