Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
1–10 of 209 posts
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#2When my father was a child, there was a craze in town (India) that tonsils are bad and removing them will only do good. My grandma fell for it, among hordes of other mothers, and got my fathers tonsils removed. My father is a Gen X cohort, and now whenever the pollen season arrives (he is in USA now), he is totally helpless.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#3When my father was a child, there was a craze in town (India) that tonsils are bad and removing them will only do good. My grandma fell for it, among hordes of other mothers, and got my fathers tonsils removed. My father is a Gen X cohort, and now whenever the pollen season arrives (he is in USA now), he is totally helpless.
I had my tonsils and adenoids removed due to recurring severe infection. Well, actually, the tonsils were removed due to infection, and my adenoids were an "afterthought" because my dad has a history of sleep apnea. I don't have any allergies, and I definitely don't get sick as often as when I was younger-- during which time I was getting all sorts of infections (ear, kidney, eyes, etc.) recurrently.
Anyways. Just another anecdote on the pile.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#4Tonsils can cause miserable life to suferrers and while they might have negative long term effect, the research does not include the mental issues that recurring tonsils cause.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#5When my father was a child, there was a craze in town (India) that tonsils are bad and removing them will only do good. My grandma fell for it, among hordes of other mothers, and got my fathers tonsils removed. My father is a Gen X cohort, and now whenever the pollen season arrives (he is in USA now), he is totally helpless.
I had my tonsils and adenoids removed due to recurring severe infection. Well, actually, the tonsils were removed due to infection, and my adenoids were an "afterthought" because my dad has a history of sleep apnea. I don't have any allergies, and I definitely don't get sick as often as when I was younger-- during which time I was getting all sorts of infections (ear, kidney, eyes, etc.) recurrently. Anyways. Just an…
My daughter was 3 when they removed her tonsils. Recurring infections and swelling were making it difficult for her to breath. She still has the occasional cold but nothing like before they were removed. They were huge for a tiny 3 year old.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#6I seem to recall that a "tonsils out" subplot was commonplace in the American sitcoms of the 60s and 70s, but completely disappeared soon after that. I was born in the late 70s and I don't think I know a single peer who had tonsils or adenoids removed.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#7Is there a causal link between the surgery and the increase in long-term disease risk, or were patients who were more likely to get the surgery (because of more severe symptoms or more frequent occurrence of infections) at greater long-term disease risk (whether they had surgery or not)? Without some functional mechanism, I'd be very wary of these kinds of data analyses.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#8If you have your tonsils removed you most probably have not a very strong immune system, originally. So it's OK to expect that you're less healthy during the life. I don't think that tonsils removal is causing this, the root of the problem is deeper I think. I have my tonsils removed a year ago when I was 32 because of problems with my joints. They are better now actually. So I would say, you need to remove your tonsils when it's absolutely necessary.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#9My daughter's adenoids were removed after their size caused her ear canals to remain closed, which was causing fluid buildup behind her ear and affecting her ability to hear clearly.
When a child cannot hear, they cannot learn important nuances to speech. Additionally, prolonged exposure to those fluids, if I understood the ENT doctor correctly, her hearing could have been permanently damaged had we left it. We were also taking intercontinental flights at the time and the closed canal could have caused a rupture, further limiting her hearing.
None of these things were associated with an ear infection. We only identified the adenoid issue because she was having trouble hearing and the ENT identified the large adenoids at that point. There was no pain associated with it, and I suspect many parents may not even realize that their kids have this issue.
What are the long term speech and hearing risks compared to the long term health risks?
I strongly caution anyone against a knee-jerk response to a study like this. It could be another anti-vaccination study all over again.
Re: Long-term health risks after having adenoids or tonsils removed in childhood
#10I’ve begged my doctor to remove my tonsils and they refuse due to studies like this.
I get tonsil stones every single month and at least one severe case of tonsilitis per year (usually closer to 3-4.)
Anyone have strategies that worked to convince their GP to allow them to be removed? At this point I’m considering just paying out of pocket to get it done.