Over 600,000 women undergo hysterectomy every year in the U.S. Did you know that the only sugery performed more often than hysterectomy on women are C-sections? Are you at risk for having a hysterectomy? You could be if you exibit just three clinical characteristics.

According to the results of a recent four-year study of 762 women that is reported in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the presence of only three clinical characteristics increases a woman's chance of having a hysterectomy over the next four years up to 95 percent. Women with none of these clinical characteristics had only a 20 percent chance of having a hysterectomy during the next four years. The chance of having a hysterectomy increases with each clinical characteristic that is present. These clinical characteristics are:

1. Having multiple pelvic symptoms or having uterine fibroid tumors that caused symptoms. (Not all women with uterine fibroids experience symptoms.)
2. Having previously used a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, such as Lupron, to treat symptoms.
3. Having been unable to find an acceptable amount of symptom relief from various treatments.

According to the report, physicians may use these clinical characteristics, to help determine whether alternative treatments are likely to fail or succeed in a particular woman.

More: What You Need to Know Before You Have a Hysterectomy