Design: Prospective cohort study of women undergoing hysterectomy.

Setting: Academic tertiary medical center.

Patients or Participants: 456 women who underwent hysterectomy for benign indications.

Interventions: None

Measurements and Main Results: Participants undergoing hysterectomy for benign indications and without concurrent urogynecologic surgery were recruited and asked to complete a baseline survey 2-weeks prior to their scheduled procedure, as well as seven follow-up surveys up to 12-months post-operatively. Using latent class analysis, overall regret scores were derived from five validated survey questions and were used to determine patterns of regret following hysterectomy. Three classes were identified: high regret that remained high over time (Class 1); high regret that lowered over time (Class 2); and low regret that remained low (Class 3). Women who reported they were moderately dissatisfied with their sexual life prior to surgery were more likely to be in Class 1 relative to the Class 3 compared with women who were very satisfied with their sexual life (multinomial logistic regression, risk ratio=4.92, 95% CI: 1.48, 16.31).

Conclusion: Self-reported sexual dissatisfaction prior to surgery is associated with postoperative regret. Gynecologists and their patients may take this into consideration during preoperative counseling.