TTC after laparoscopy

[Faith-89]

Hi everyone! I have been ttc for two years. I had a lap & dye yesterday where they found stage 3 endometriosis. My doctor was able to remove most of it and advised me that I had a good chance of conceiving in the next 6 months. I’m wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and did conceive after a lap & dye? Also I’m wondering how long on average people’s symptoms returned after removal of endometriosis? Thanks in advance for replies!

[Hidden]

I conceived twice naturally after treatment of endometriosis. The first was a chemical pregnancy( conceived first cycle) & after my third surgery I conceived my 4 month daughter Francesca (conceived second cycle)

I’ll be honest none of my surgeries improved my symptoms but having them did improve my fertility enough to become pregnant which was the main reason for me to have it.

After struggling for over 7 years cannot believe it happened for us.

I really hope the surgery does the trick & you fall soon xxx

[kitscat]

I had a laparoscopy in July and I’m on my 3rd month of trying to conceive now. So no good news yet but I am in the same boat-ish. I have had an ectopic with Fallopian tube removal and have stage 4 endo! Best of luck to us both xxx

[Mara_Simba]

Have you had an AMH blood test? This will give you an indication as to whether your ovaries and eggs have been badly damaged by the endometriosis or not. For me personally, I couldn't conceive after surgery and IVF also failed because of poor egg quality so I'm not waiting for egg donor IVF. Depending on your age, you can determine how long you want to try each stage for before escalating.

[Faith-89 in reply to Mara_Simba]

I had AMH tested two years ago which was 15.8, normal for my age but on the lower side of normal. I’m 30 now. My dr has suggested to try for 6 months and then consider IVF. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much that the surgery will work miracles. I’ve heard such mixed results. Good luck to you I hope you get some good news soon x

[Mara_Simba in reply to Faith-89]

That is still a good AMH level so good reason to be optimistic, mine was down at 3.8. Good luck!

[wanwood]

I had very comprehensive excision as part of my lap & dye, and my endo was stage 3 or 4. The surgeon considered very carefully and felt on balance IVF would give the best chance of success. But I wanted to give it a go one more time without assistance. Once my cycle returned properly post surgery, we tried TTC for several months before starting IVF, which the fertility consultant said was ok to do but no more. In the end it was 7 months of TTC because of IVF timings so I can say we give it the full 6 months. That's just my experience, though, and it sounds like your surgeon thought your situation was different.

In terms of symptoms returning, it's hard to distinguish between post-surgery healing and symptoms returning. I would say that after 6 months, I started feeling some symptoms again but they are not nearly as bad. I've had a lot of ultrasounds etc since so I know objectively no one has seen signs of it coming back, so whatever I'm feeling is probably microscopic.

[Faith-89 in reply to wanwood]

My dr said my tubes were relatively unaffected by the endo which is why I think she felt there was a good chance I may conceive naturally but she said six months would probably be the max amount of time she would recommend before considering alternative methods. I am not so much worried about the symptoms of endo coming back as I’ve dealt with that for so long but more so concerned on how quickly it can grow back and thus affect fertility. Good luck with your IVF journey Xx

[StefaniaJW]

The chances of conceiving after a well-performed excision surgery are quite high (I would say close to 80% or even higher. I have seen at least 10 women conceive after excision for stage 4 endo) if it was performed well and all endo was removed.

It not all endo was removed, the excision was not performed by an experienced specialist or it was not excision (so it was ablation for example), the chances are less than 20%.

It all depends on how well the lap was performed.

If you fail to conceive within 6 months I would consider a better surgery with a truly well-versed specialist