Introduction. Hospitalization is the source of numerous emotional changes for an individual. All kinds of support: informative, emotional and service-objective are necessary elements in the patient’s care. Each women is an individual who perceives her life in a different way, and may demand more or less support in difficult situations. The purpose of this study was to verify whether women operated for gynaecological illnesses needed support and if this demand depended on the kind of method of operational treatment and the level of stress.

Material and methods. The study was carried out among 200 patients with different gynaecological illnesses operated at the Department of Reproduction and Andrology of the F. Skubiszewski Medical University of Lublin. The study was conducted with the use of a questionnaire and a documentation-analysis sheet (self-prepared using The Sense of Coherence Scale – SOC-29 and The Social Support Scale – SWS) as well as The Numerical Scale (0-10) to evaluate the stress level. Moreover, prolactin (PRL) concentration as marker of stress reaction in the blood serum was evaluated.

Results, discussion, conclusions. The results showed that the majority of the women (90.0% in the preoperative period and 91.5% after a surgical procedure) expected support. The method of operational treatment influenced the need for support during the perioperative period. The patients who expected support declared a higher stress level during the perioperative period.