Quality of Life and Health Status After Prophylactic Salpingo-oophorectomy in Women Who Carry a BRCA Mutation: A Review

Prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy is recommended to women who carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation at age 35 or after childbearing is complete. This procedure is the mainstay of ovarian and fallopian tube cancer prevention in these women. Therefore an understanding of the short and long-term impact of the surgery is essential. Salpingo-oophorectomy, particularly when done prior to natural menopause, may impact on several aspects of quality of life and health. The health benefits of this surgery (cancer prevention) should outweigh the costs of the procedure in terms of quality of life and long term health. In this review, the impact of this surgery on quality of life and health in women who carry a BRCA mutation is discussed. Preliminary studies have focused on short-term effects, such as quality of life. In the short term, overall quality of life appears to be similar before and after surgery, however vasomotor symptoms related to surgical menopause and changes in sexual functioning are common. HRT appears to mitigate some but not all of these symptoms. Women report high levels of satisfaction with their decision to have the surgery despite the impact of prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy. Studies of the long term health and quality of life after salpingo-oophorectomy in women who carry a BRCA mutation have not yet been published.