Endometriosis and pregnancy: it is possible thanks to the vitrification of the oocytes. What you need to know

Suffering from endometriosis and wanting a child: impossible? It’s not for sure. Because today, 95 percent of women under 35 with endometriosis manage to get pregnant after vitrification of their eggs.

Merit of progress in vitrification techniques which in the last decade have allowed the development of effective fertility preservation programs, capable of offer more and more guarantees of a future pregnancy to women whose ovarian reserve can be compromised for various reasons. One of these is precisely theendometriosis, pathology that it affects about 10% of women of childbearing age and which, in most cases, implies the need to undertake an assisted fertilization process to fulfill the desire for motherhood.

“Unfortunately, endometriosis does not heal, but there are several treatments that can reduce the pain»Explains Dr. Daniela galliano, surgeon, specialized in Gynecology, Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine, Head of PMA Center of IVI Rome. «The type of treatment depends on the stage of the disease, the damage to the ovaries and the age of the patient: what I recommend to women who suspect they are affected is to carry out the necessary tests to diagnose it early, to improve their quality of life as soon as possible. In particular, it is good to point out, also and above all to the younger ones, that severe pain during the period or during sexual intercourse is not normal: consulting a specialist as soon as possible is essential to intervene and stem the progression of the disease “.

Endometriosis can be highly disabling and can cause infertility. In this regard, the number of cryopreserved oocytes and the patient’s age are key factors for the success of an assisted reproduction process that can respond positively to the desire for pregnancy despite a diagnosis of endometriosis. However, there is a precise number of oocytes to be vitrified to optimize the chances of success of the MAP treatment. The recent study highlighted this Number needed to freeze: cumulative live birth rate after fertility preservation in women with endometriosis, conducted by Dr. Ana Cobo, Director ofIVI Cryopreservation Unit. The study has shown that the greater the number of vitrified oocytes, the higher the chances of success of the assisted fertilization process will be.
In particular, in patients under the age of 35, suffering from endometriosis, a success rate of 95% was achieved in MAP treatments carried out following the vitrification of about 20 oocytes; while, in patients over the age of 35, the success rate was around 80%. “These data were already known for women who undergo the social freezing it’s at oncofertility treatments, but they had not yet been verified for patients with endometriosis, for which the question is even more relevant since, for them, the risk of premature exhaustion of the ovarian reserve is greater », emphasizes Dr. Galliano.

The study looked at data from 485 patients with endometriosis who preserved their fertility at IVI clinics in Spain, between January 2007 and July 2018, and who subsequently sought pregnancy.

The results clearly indicate the positive effect of youth on reproductive outcomes in patients with endometriosis. However, It is necessary to make a clarification regarding patients who present an advanced stage of the disease or who have undergone surgery. In fact, if it is true that taking about 15-20 oocytes for vitrification (probably in two cycles of stimulation) is relatively easy in the case of young women, it is equally true that in some patients the ovarian reserve may already be compromised under the age of 35, especially if they have had surgery. In this regard, a study previously conducted by Dr. Cobo has shown that young women performed better when undergoing fertility-preserving treatment prior to surgical removal of ovarian endometrioma.