Yes, endometriosis can affect fertility, although many women with endometriosis conceive naturally. Endometriosis-related infertility occurs from scar tissue or pelvic adhesions that distort the pelvic anatomy, inflammation, or reduced ovarian function and egg quality.
How Does Endometriosis Affect Fertility?
Endometriosis doesn’t just cause heavy and painful periods, but it’s also associated with infertility. Many women conceive successfully despite endometriosis, but according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, around 30-50% of women with endometriosis struggle with infertility.
How it affects your fertility depends on its location, how extensive the disease is, your age, whether it has caused scars, and your reproductive function. Wondering how endometriosis and fertility are connected? And which endometriosis treatment in Mulund can help you conceive? Keep reading.
Can Endometriosis Cause Infertility?
Yes, it can. In fact, many women don’t know they have endometriosis until they try to conceive without success and visit a gynecologist, only to discover that they have endometriosis. Interestingly, endometriosis and fertility have a complex relationship.
Women with mild endometriosis may struggle to conceive without treatment, while those with extensive disease may conceive naturally and easily. So, let’s see what exactly makes conception with this gynecological issue difficult.
It Causes Scar Tissue Formation
Scar tissue can make your pelvic organs, which are supposed to move freely, stick to each other. Normally, when your ovary releases an egg, it’s picked up by a fallopian tube.
An adhesion around the ovary or your fallopian tube can distort the pelvic structure, thus affecting the egg’s movement through your reproductive tract. That’s why the location of endometriosis matters just as much as the severity of the disease.
It Affects Your Ovaries
Endometriosis can develop inside your ovaries and form ovarian endometriomas, also called chocolate cysts. They can take up considerable space in your ovaries, thus affecting their function and ovarian reserve.
Since ovaries play a major role in conception by maturing and releasing an egg, reduced function can affect conception.
It Could Affect Egg Quality
Research shows that ovarian endometrioma can negatively affect oocyte quality, fertilization rates, and blastocyst rates. However, a direct link between endometriosis and reduced ovarian function isn’t established yet.
That’s why your gynecologist in Mulund may consider other factors, such as your ovarian reserve and your fertility history, to understand how endometriosis can impact your ability to conceive.
It Makes Implantation Difficult
The embryos need to travel down the tubes and attach to the uterine lining. This is called implantation. Endometriosis is linked to chronic inflammation, progesterone resistance, and genetic changes, all of which can interfere with implantation.
Can You Conceive with Endometriosis Naturally?
Yes, many women do. Endometriosis doesn’t automatically mean infertility or that IVF treatment is necessary to conceive. The condition is classified into stages, i.e., Stage I, II, III, or IV, depending on the adhesions and lesions.
If it’s located in places where it doesn’t interfere with ovarian function, fertilization, or implantation, you may not notice difficulty getting pregnant.
Infertility can have other, and more than one, causes. For example, ovulation problems, male-factor infertility, tubal problems, or age-related fertility decline can all contribute to infertility. That’s why it’s worth consulting a gynecologist for a medical evaluation, instead of assuming endometriosis to be the cause of infertility.
