There is a link between endometriosis and fertility problems and that is because an endometriosis could affect the normal anatomy of the pelvis, affect the tubes, affect the ovaries and that may in turn disrupt the normal process for natural conception but not all women with endometriosis will have fertility problems. Generally, in this case, more severe the endometriosis and more likely is that the female patient is unable to conceive simply because the anatomy of the fallopian tubes is abnormal and sometimes there could be ovarian cysts also of endometriotic nature affecting the normal ovulation. What we know is, however, that in women that have got endometriosis and undergo assisted conception treatment, their outcome is not significantly lower compared to those women that don’t have endometriosis and undergo assisted conception which shows that probably the negative impact or the unfavorable prognosis in women with endometriosis trying to conceive is more associated with the disrupted anatomy of the pelvis rather than with some other issues to do with egg quality, embryo quality or indeed the endometrium.
The extent of the problem is not related with the extent of the symptoms. Patient could have symptoms of pain or sub-fertility but she could have very minimal or mild endometriosis. Interestingly, she could have severe endometriosis when we classify her or stage her disease but she could achieve pregnancy on her own. The stage of the disease has got nothing to do with the actual symptoms which could be different – which is interesting in this disease.
What I can say about stages of endometriosis – what makes it strange, because we may find a woman with a very mild or stage I endometriosis and she is suffering from severe pain and severe infertility and we may found one with stage IV endometriosis or deep infiltrating endometriosis, she has just mild symptoms, she completed her family and nobody knows why she has this form and there are no symptoms to complain about. This is the strangest thing about the stages which are sometimes not correlating about what the woman actually complaining or just seeking medical advice for.
Absolutely! The statistics for endometriosis and infertility are that around two-thirds of women who have the condition, will still go on and conceive naturally. It’s a smallish proportion, around a third, who may go on to have problems getting pregnant unfortunately. A lot of these people respond well to surgery or treatments such as IVF as well.
