Abstract
Background
Endometriosis is a common disorder in women of reproductive age and is a major cause of pelvic pain and infertility. Counseling women with endometriosis about their reproductive future remains a difficult task. Because many women are diagnosed with endometriosis before any attempt to conceive, they still are not considered infertile and therefore a thorough investigation of fertility parameters is not advisable at that time. The aim of the present study was to evaluate clinical factors that are promptly available upon diagnosis, to see which of them might predict a subsequent pregnancy in women with endometriosis.
Methods
Surgical and clinical data were obtained from 71 women who underwent laparoscopy for endometriosis in two tertiary medical centers and responded to a follow-up interview after an average of 18 months. Data were analyzed with multivariate logistic regression.
Results
The only independent predictors of becoming pregnant during the follow-up period were age (adjusted odds ratio for age >30 y=0.063, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.015–0.262, p
Conclusions
While women reporting acyclic pelvic pain are less likely to achieve pregnancy after endometriosis surgery, age remains the only independent, strong predictor of time to pregnancy and of becoming pregnant.
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