In all my years of talking to others about having children, I never guessed I might receive an infertility diagnosis.
It’s an odd thing how the mind plays tricks on you, or maybe it simply prevents you from living out a trauma before it happens. Growing a family and becoming a mom is a lifelong dream of mine.
When it was finally my turn to get pregnant, we did not dwell too much on the fact that something could go wrong.
The larger scientific and reproductive endocrinology community knows little about endometriosis, and what we do know still remains a large and complex maze. Women’s health issues and diseases tend to go under the radar and what we do know is endometriosis exists in approximately 1 in 10 women.
Endometriosis is a debilitating disease where cells of the endometrium are found outside the uterus in the peritoneal cavity or attached to other organs like the lungs, bowel, and bladder. This is a problem because when these endometrial cells are found outside of where they are supposed to live in the endometrium of the uterus. Then, we receive an inflammatory reaction which leads to an inflammatory response. You can often see this response on laparoscopy as a brownish mixture, and it is filled with immune response cells like macrophages, white blood cells, and an increase in cytokines (proteins).
50% of infertile women are known to have endometriosis and fertility specialists face a great deal of complexity when treating infertility patients with endometriosis due to a lack of compelling and conclusive data.
When it comes to treatment options for women with endometriosis, in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be the best treatment option in terms of pregnancy success rates. The use of medication, Letrozole, for both stimulation and transfer cycles work well for women with endometriosis because it helps with the inflammatory impact of endometriosis on both eggs and the endometrial lining.
Overall, endometriosis does impact fertility and for many patients and we still do not know the primary cause of infertility with endometriosis. Is it an egg quality issue, or is it an issue with the altered environment of the endometrial lining of the uterus?
One thing we do know is fertility specialists have hands-on experience working with women who are battling infertility and endometriosis. You do not need to fight this alone. Please call IVF Canada and our friendly staff can guide you through your fertility journey. Book a consultation today!
