Speak with an experienced advisor! If you have had an adhesion as a result of prior surgery and are looking for adhesion life insurance approval, we can help you. Although rare, post-surgical adhesions can lead to life-threatening complications.
Adhesions can result in medical complications, restricted range of motion, and life-threatening medical events.
What is an adhesion?
Adhesion may result in the body’s normal healing process after surgery. Adhesions forms in a similar manner to scar tissue. When scar tissue extends from one tissue in your body to another, it is called an adhesion.
Adhesions typically take place after surgery when two injured areas within your body are close to one another. Inflammation occurs after an injury, and when these two inflamed tissues connect, they often heal together as part of the scar tissue healing process.
What are the complications of adhesions?
Some adhesions never cause problems to the patient. Other adhesions may prevent muscles or internal organs from moving freely within your body.
An adhesion of muscle-to-muscle may result in a decreased range of movement. Also, adhesion of internal organs to other internal organs often leads to organs being twisted or pulled out of their normal positions.
What do adhesions mean for my life insurance eligibility?
Adhesions to muscle tissue that restrict a normal range of motion will often have no impact at all on your adhesion life insurance eligibility.
Adhesions to internal organs can have serious health implications that may impact your ability to purchase life insurance in the future.
Tell me more about internal organ adhesion life insurance eligibility?
The best time to purchase life insurance is before you need it and before you need surgery. Any surgery creates a risk of health complications, infection, and even death.
Example: you just had bowel or internal surgery (Chron’s, colitis, appendix, stomach, etc.). The surgery is completed and the doctor releases you. You seem to be doing fine, but then six months later become ill and nauseous- with terrible pain in the stomach area.
You’re rushed to the hospital and diagnostic tests are performed. Your doctor then rushes you into emergency surgery due to a strangulated intestine as a result of the postsurgical adhesion.
A strangulated section of your intestine had restricted blood flow to your intestine, and it began to die within your body (necrosis). As the body tissue died, a septic infection began to spread to your body- threatening your life.
The doctors were able to cut out the infected section, pump you full of antibiotics, and save your life. You survived, but your life will never be the same with 6 feet of your intestine removed from your body (as a result of the adhesion).
In this example, do you think your surgery and complications would have a negative impact on your eligibility to purchase life insurance at the best rates? Yes, it would.
Types of adhesion and life insurance eligibility concerns
Adhesive Capsulitis – this is known as Frozen Shoulder Syndrome. This is where post injury adhesions grow between shoulder joint surfaces- thereby restricting your shoulder’s range of motion.
Abdominal Adhesions – abdominal adhesions are commonly caused by abdominal surgery events. These adhesions start to form within your body mere hours after the surgery as part of your body’s normal healing process. Your internal organs may attach to other organs in the abdominal cavity or the surgical site.
The twisting and pulling of your internal organs are a result of this type of abdominal adhesion. Complications can range from abdominal pain to life-threatening intestinal obstructions.
Abdominal adhesions can be a ticking time bomb and may occur over 20 years after a surgical procedure. In the United States, approximately 2,000 people die every year as a result of postsurgical adhesions.
One postsurgical study showed that up to 90% of people having abdominal surgery develop an adhesion. Almost all never cause a problem, and yet some result in life-threatening complications.
Up to 35% of patients who have had an abdominal or pelvic surgery had to have another surgery (or two) after their original surgery due to adhesion-related or adhesion-suspected complications according to a recent study.
The insurance company will look at the reason you had abdominal surgery in the first place. Was it appendicitis? Did you heal properly? If so, this will have no impact on your ability to get life insurance in the coming years.
If you had Crohn’s disease, Crohn’s disease would have an impact on your ability to qualify for life insurance. If you had surgery for Crohn’s disease and had an adhesion that resulted in you losing a portion of your intestinal tract- this would impact the ability to get the most affordable life insurance rates.
Pelvic Adhesions – this typically happens in women who have had pelvic surgery or other medical procedures. Life insurance eligibility for life insurance is less of a concern than other adhesions.
One postsurgical study showed that 55-100% of women developed adhesions after having pelvic surgery.
Pericardial Adhesions – these are adhesions that form after cardiac surgery. Adhesion occurs between the heart and the sternum. This adhesion may place the heart at high risk of a life-threatening injury if other heart surgeries are required in the future.
With a pericardial adhesion, your underlying heart surgery will have more of an impact on your life insurance eligibility and rates than any potential adhesion will.
The adhesion will only be noticed upon a second surgical reentry into the body. Therefore, the first surgery, and the reasons for that surgery, will have the largest impact on your life insurance eligibility and rates.
Peridural adhesion life insurance concerns – these adhesions occur after spinal surgery and may restrict the free movement of nerve roots in the area of surgery. This can cause tethering between the nerve roots and lead to pain.
The original spinal surgery will have more impact on your ability to get the best life insurance plan and rates. If, however, adhesions lead to extreme pain that cannot be resolved and it impacts your daily living activities- it may make getting the best life insurance rates more of a challenge.
Peritendinous adhesion life insurance concerns – these adhesions occur around the tendons in your hand after surgery. These adhesions restrict the ability of tendons to collide in their sheaths within your hand and can compromise the range of motion in your fingers.
These types of adhesions will have minimal impact on your ability to purchase life insurance unless other more serious complications occur in the future.
What do adhesions have the do with life insurance?
The best time to purchase life insurance is before you need it. The best time to purchase adhesion life insurance is before you have the surgery. The next best time to purchase adhesion life insurance is after you’ve had the surgery.
If you’ve had any internal organ surgeries; there is a high likelihood that you will develop adhesions and adhesion-related complications.
Life-threatening adhesion complications can occur 20+ years after the surgery. This is why having life insurance in place is so important for you and your family.
What kind of life insurance rates can I get?
Life insurance companies will consider everything about you and your body when considering your life insurance eligibility. Here are just some of the things life insurance companies will consider before issuing your life insurance policy:
- Your height & weight
- Current illness & diseases
- Gender
- Foreign travel
- Habits/hobbies
- Marital status
- Medications prescribed
- Other life insurance in place
If you have a family history of Crohn’s, heart conditions, cancer or any other internal organ diseases, the best time to purchase life insurance is before you are diagnosed.
If you have been diagnosed with a medical problem, you should still seek out life insurance as soon as possible. Most illnesses get worse over time resulting in higher life insurance premiums as you get older.
Conclusion
If you have had a surgery, call us to help you understand your adhesion life insurance options.
At Life Wealth Win, we specialize in healthy to high-risk life insurance cases. We can help you understand your life insurance options with adhesions or other surgical medical complications.
We work with clients across the nation to get the best life insurance rates possible. If you have an adhesion or surgical complication, we can help you get the best life insurance rates.
