The Surgical Treatment of Severe Endometriosis Positively Affects the Chance of Natural or Assisted Pregnancy Postoperatively.

Objective: To report reproductive outcomes following laparoscopic surgical excision of histologically confirmed r-ASRM stage III-IV endometriosis.

Study Design: A retrospective cohort study was performed at the Royal Hospital for Women, a university teaching hospital, Sydney, Australia. Women who had fertility-preserving laparoscopic excision of stage III-IV endometriosis from 1997 to 2009 were contacted regarding reproductive outcomes.

Results: In the study period, 355 women underwent surgery for stage III-IV endometriosis. Follow-up data are available for 253/355 (71%) women. Postoperatively, 142/253 (56%) women attempted to conceive with a conception rate of 104/142 (73%). Confidence intervals for pregnancy for women who were attempting conception (including the nonresponders) range from 104/262 (40%) to 224/262 (85%). Median time to conception was 12 months. No positive prognostic factors for pregnancy were identified on regression analyses.

Conclusions: These data provide information to women with suspected severe disease preoperatively concerning their likely postoperative fertility outcomes. Ours is a population with severe endometriosis, rather than an infertile population with endometriosis, so caution needs to be applied when applying these data to women with fertility issues alone.