The bone changes after gynecological surgery during the early phase of recovery were examined. The subjects were randomly selected from women who had undergone bilateral oopho-hysterectomies (OOX, n = 98, 46.0 +/- 5.0 year-old) or hysterectomies (HX, n = 75, 43.6 +/- 4.6 year-old) within 4 years prior to entering the study. The ovarian functions in the HX group were presumed to be intact following the hysterectomies, judging from the cytological evaluation of the vaginal pap smears. The bone morphological changes in both groups were examined to measure the cortical thickness of the metacarpal bone (MCI) on hands X-ray film using microdensitometry, and the posterior/anterior height ratios (P/A ratio) of the entire vertebral bodies, on vertebral X-ray films using a digitizer. The changes in bone mineral densities in both groups were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry at lumbar vertebrae (L2-4 BMD) and by microdensitometry at the metacarpal cortical bone; the bone densities of metacarpal bone were referenced by the density of aluminum step wedge on the same X-ray films. The prevalence of vertebral body fractures (P/A ratio greater than 1.4) in the OOX group (5.1%) was 3.9 times higher than that in the HX group (1.3%). There was a significant decrease in MCI in the OOX group compared with the HX group (p less than 0.01). L2-4 BMD in the OOX and HX group were 1.07 +/- 0.15 and 1.16 +/- 0.13 g/cm2, respectively (p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)