Endometriosis Surgery and the Chances of Getting Pregnant
Feb 18, 2020
How does ovarian surgery affect the chance of conceiving?
Key Points
Highlights:
- Deep infiltrating endometriosis surgery in young women could increase the chance of becoming pregnant
Importance:
- A better understanding of factors influencing the chance of conceiving can help health providers and patients make informed decisions about interventions such as surgery and conception.
What's done here:
- Researchers analyzed data from women with deep infiltrating endometriosis, mean age 31.9 years who have had two or more failed attempts at assisted reproduction and ovarian surgery.
Key results:
- The pregnancy rate following surgery was 43.8 percent
- The mean time from surgery to pregnancy was 11.1 months
- 21.8% of pregnancies were achieved spontaneously,
- 31.2% of pregnancies were achieved by in vitro fertilization (IVF)
- 21.8% of pregnancies were achieved by frozen embryo transfer
- 18.7% of pregnancies were achieved by IVF-ICSI
- 3.1% of pregnancies were achieved by intrauterine insemination
- Ovarian surgery in women, ages 35 and above with stage 2 endometriosis was associated with the probability of conception.
Limitations:
- This study used prospectively recorded data and was not a controlled study. Moreover, it only used data from a single center.
Lay Summary
Women with deep infiltrating endometriosis who have had two or more failed attempts at assisted reproduction may be referred for surgery according to a study published in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology. The authors also found that the surgery does not delay conception.
This finding can guide informed decision making regarding endometriosis surgery and women’s chances of conceiving.
In the study, a team of researchers led by Dr. Horace Roman wanted to assess the probability of women with deep infiltrating endometriosis to become pregnant following surgery. So they collected data prospectively recorded in the North-West Inter-Regional Female Cohort for Patients with Endometriosis (CIRENDO) database.
Data from 104 women were included in the study. All women were below age 43 and have had at least two attempts at assisted reproduction including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). They also all had surgery to treat their deep infiltrating endometriosis.
The researchers assessed the pregnancy rate of women following surgery. Out of the 104 women, 77 wanted to get pregnant after their operation. Four of these women became pregnant using egg donors and were not included in the study.
The pregnancy rate following surgery was 43.8 percent and the meantime to pregnancy from surgery was less than a year (11.1 months).
Using statistical analyses, the authors concluded that ovarian surgery in women who are 35 or older and have stage 2 endometriosis was associated with the probability of conception.
