Saturday, September 12, 2009

Link Between Endometriosis And Infertility!

According to the study, about 40% of the women with endometriosis are infertile.

Endometrium is the tissue that lines the inside of uterine cavity.

These tissues spread somewhere in your body such as ovaries or somewhere in your abdominal cavity.

The only way to confirm whether you have endometriosis is by undergoing a surgical procedure called as laparoscopy.

Laparoscopy is a procedure that helps to look inside of your abdominal cavity. Endometriosis can also be due to very painful menstrual cycles, painful intercourse, etc.

Mild endometriosis:

Most of the endometriosis cases are mild. Usually endometriosis can lead to lower abdominal pain and pelvic pain. Sometimes, endometriosis doesn’t cause any symptoms to appear. Though endometriosis causes infertility in some women, most of the fertile women can also have mild endometriosis.

Still there are studies conducting to find the definite link between mild endometriosis and infertility. Some studies had discovered that delayed pregnancy and infertility influences women to develop endometriosis, but not endometriosis is the cause of infertility.

So, most of the experts believe that infertility due to mild endometriosis is unexplained infertility.

Severe endometriosis:

This type of endometriosis causes to develop scarring at pelvic region and also disturbances in your pelvic structure. This type of endometriosis makes the fallopian tubes to become blocked and damaged.

There are some cysts of endometriosis found on ovaries and these cysts adhere to your uterus, pelvic side wall or bowel. Adhesions affecting the fallopian tubes can interfere with their ability to pick up the eggs released by the ovary and transport it to the uterus. All these distortions can result in infertility.

In some severe cases, eggs in your ovaries can be damaged, thus leading to reduced ovarian reserve and decreased egg quantity and quality.

Peritoneal fluid in women who have endometriosis includes various number of scavenger cells that are able to destroy sperm cells thus making fertilization more difficult.

Sometimes, endometriosis can also develop inside of your fallopian tubes, which results in blockages and makes fertilization impossible.

Infertility treatment for women with endometriosis:

Doctor suggests hormonal and surgical treatments to treat endometriosis. Women who receive treatment for endometriosis can have a chance of 35-65% to become pregnant. Studies showed that women with mild or minimal endometriosis don’t get any proven benefits from medical or surgical treatments.

The severe the endometriosis a woman has, the lesser the chance to become pregnant even after the treatment. Some women have greater chance to become pregnant during the first two years of treatment.

If the infertility cause is unknown, it is better to take treatment to prevent the progression of endometriosis. During the cases of unexplained infertility, it is best to consider laparoscopic surgery.

Very first step in the process of treating infertility is using medications to boost your ovaries for production of eggs. If you won’t become pregnant within 1-2 years of treatment, then you can consider methods like in vitro fertilization (IVF) or gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT).

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