Doctors are not offering enough alternatives to hysterectomies for women suffering with abnormal uterine bleeding, uterine fibroids, endometriosis or pelvic pain, according to the results of a new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The study, conducted by medical researchers at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan looking at data from 52 Michigan hospitals in 2013, found that 18 percent of women who undergo hysterectomies may not have needed the surgery and that one-third of women who have hysterectomies are never offered treatment alternatives, such as endometrial ablation, hormonal management, operative hysteroscopy or using IUDs (intrauterine devices), which release progestin.

The UK’s British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that up to 34 percent of all hysterectomies were not necessary, according to The Daily Mail, meaning that some 25,000 women undergo the major surgery to remove their female organs.

One-in-350 women who undergo a robotic hysterectomy or myomectomy (the removal of uterine fibroids), in which a power morcellator is used, are later diagnosed with uterine sarcoma.

There are some 50,000 women annually who undergo hysterectomies with the use of a device known as a power morcellator, which shreds uterine tissue so it can be removed through laparoscopic incisions, providing for a less invasive surgery.

Citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Network of Women’s Health reports that the United States has the highest rate of hysterectomies in the industrialized world. Some 600,000 hysterectomies are performed annually in the United States, and approximately 20 million American women have had a hysterectomy.

But the morcellator has come under intense scrutiny amid a flood of suspicion that the device’s blades may spread unsuspected cancerous tissue outside the uterus.

Power Morcellators Linked to Uterine Cancer

The FDA issued a safety advisory discouraging surgeons from using the morcellator and plans to issue a decision on whether morcellation surgery will be banned.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is also reviewing the published scientific literature and will provide the medical community with best-practice guidelines.

Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of the laparoscopic morcellator, has removed the device from the market and many hospitals have issued moratoriums on their use.

Power morcellator cancer lawyers are looking for women diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma (LMS), uterine sarcoma or other cancer within two years after their initial surgery to remove fibroids, the uterus, ovaries or fallopian tubes, in which a power morcellator was used.

Before the controversy, morcellators were also commonly used in a procedure to remove the ovaries, known as an oophorectomy, and another to take out the fallopian tubes (salpingectomy).

“The tool slices tissue into fragments so it can be removed through small incisions, but the procedure can leave bits of tissue behind that can continue to grow and spread, whether benign or unexpectedly malignant,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The issue of power morcellators spreading cancerous tissue was raised by a doctor whose wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer after undergoing the minimally invasive procedure during routine gynecologic surgery.

Accusing the FDA of putting industry interests ahead of patient safety, Dr. Hooman Noorchashm has asked FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg for the resignation of the deputy director and chief scientist at the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health.