Disturbances in mood such as anxiety and depression are a problem for some women following a hysterectomy for benign or malignant conditions. Mood disturbances following hysterectomy may be related to the impact of a benign or malignant condition, variations in the way women cope, differences in personal developmental resources such as self-coherence, or a combination of these factors. Self-coherence, the ability to integrate present experience with past experience, current motivations and goals, and to find meaning in the present experience, was thought to promote adaptive coping.

A cross-sectional ex-post-facto design was used to study self-coherence, coping, and mood in a convenience sample of 141 hysterectomy patients with benign (n = 107) or malignant (n = 34) conditions. The Self-Coherence Survey (SCS) (Budd, 1987), the Coping Response Scale (Moos, Cronkite, Billings & Finney, 1987) and the Profile of Mood States (McNair, Lorr & Droppleman, 1981) were administered three to five days after surgery.

Principal components factor analysis was used to analyze the factor structure of the SCS, and three factors (coherence, wholism, and introspection) were confirmed. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine predictors of six mood states and total mood disturbance.

Most women who participated in this study did not experience significant disturbances in mood immediately following hysterectomy. The findings revealed that higher coherence, behavioral coping, and being previously but not currently married contributed to less disturbance in mood; the use of avoidant and cognitive coping, having a hysterectomy for cancer and greater perceived severity contributed to greater disturbance in mood. Between 19% and 50% of the variation in each of the six mood states and total mood disturbance was accounted for by these variables.

There were no differences on any of the self-coherence or coping scores between subjects who had a hysterectomy for cancer and those whose conditions were benign. Coherence was significantly inversely correlated with the use of avoidant coping. Wholism and introspection were positively correlated with the use of behavioral and cognitive coping.