Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many hysterectomies were performed by NHS England in the most recent year for which data is available; and what steps they are taking to ensure patients provide informed consent.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

No national assessment has been made. Hysterectomy is the established medical term for the surgical removal of the uterus. A change to an established term of this kind would require agreement across the national and international professional and classification bodies.

As with all procedures, healthcare professionals are expected to fully explain the procedure in advance, including expected symptoms, side effects, and risks. These conversations should be undertaken using a shared decision-making approach that ensures individuals are supported to make decisions that are right for them. NHS England has published guidance on the use of shared decision making, which is available on the NHS England website, under personalised care.

As part of the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, we will co-produce with women a standard of care for the delivery of gynaecological procedures, ensuring all women give informed consent and are offered a choice of pain relief.

In 2024/25, 44,348 hysterectomy procedures were conducted in English National Health Service hospitals and as part of English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the term "hysterectomy" on patient understanding of the procedure prior to giving informed consent; and if no such assessment has been made, what plans they have to conduct one.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

No national assessment has been made. Hysterectomy is the established medical term for the surgical removal of the uterus. A change to an established term of this kind would require agreement across the national and international professional and classification bodies.

As with all procedures, healthcare professionals are expected to fully explain the procedure in advance, including expected symptoms, side effects, and risks. These conversations should be undertaken using a shared decision-making approach that ensures individuals are supported to make decisions that are right for them. NHS England has published guidance on the use of shared decision making, which is available on the NHS England website, under personalised care.

As part of the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, we will co-produce with women a standard of care for the delivery of gynaecological procedures, ensuring all women give informed consent and are offered a choice of pain relief.

In 2024/25, 44,348 hysterectomy procedures were conducted in English National Health Service hospitals and as part of English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Women's Health Strategy’s commitment to tackling medical misogyny includes a review of the language used in women's surgical procedures

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, published in April 2026, places tackling medical misogyny at its core, recognising that women have been dismissed for far too long and that this must change. The strategy takes a systemic approach to addressing medical misogyny and ensuring women’s voices and experiences shape care. This includes putting women’s lived experience, including pain and whether they felt listened to, at the heart of how National Health Service quality is defined, measured, and improved.

Authority over established clinical terms sits at several levels. International bodies maintain the formal terminology, classification, and coding systems used in clinical records, including the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms and the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases.

At a national level, NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the royal colleges, coding bodies, and professional societies set the terms used in guidance, patient information, pathways, and records. A change to established clinical terms would require agreement across these national and international professional and classification bodies.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans to consider replacing "hysterectomy" with "uterectomy" in NHS patient materials.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are currently no plans to replace the term ‘hysterectomy’ with ‘uterectomy’ in National Health Service patient materials.

International bodies maintain the formal terminology, classification, and coding systems used in clinical records, including the Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms and the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases.

At a national level, NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the royal colleges, coding bodies, and professional societies set the terms used in guidance, patient information, pathways, and records. NHS England is not able to rename the procedure across consent forms, clinical guidelines, records, and coding as a change to an established clinical term of this kind would require agreement across the national and international professional and classification bodies.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to review the terminology used in NHS patient materials and clinical guidelines relating to the surgical removal of the uterus to remove historically biased terminology.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

International bodies maintain the formal terminology, classification, and coding systems used in clinical records, including the Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms and the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases.

At national level, NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the royal colleges, coding bodies, and professional societies set the terms used in guidance, patient information, pathways, and records. NHS England is not able to rename procedures across consent forms, clinical guidelines, records, and coding as changes to established clinical terms would require agreement across the national and international professional and classification bodies.