A recent article written in the medical journal “The Lancet” reports on the findings of a study done at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden showing that women who’ve undergone a hysterectomy have more than twice the chance of needing treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The study was based on analyses of more than 165,000 women who had had hysterectomies and almost 479,000 women who had not.

Hysterectomy is the most common gynaecological operation in the world and is often performed as a cure for relatively benign medical problems.

The research found that the highest likelihood of incontinence surgery was within five years of the hysterectomy, but the risk remained high throughout the patients’ lives. The risk increased most for women who had a hysterectomy before their menopause or after having given birth to several children.

As the large “baby-boomer” generation grows older and faces more medical decisions like hysterectomy, the numbers of people with incontinence will likely rise as well.