Severe endometriosis and IVF.

[Doglover5]

Hi everyone ,

Hope you are all doing ok. My consultant thinks another laparoscopic surgery before IVF will not improve outcomes. I am worried as my last successful IVF was 6months after excision surgery and my body was in the best condition it could be. Roll on 3 years and symptoms are increasing which I can only assume means the endo is wreaking its usual havoc on my body.

Not a lot I can do really as wait for surgery would be ages anyway! But I guess I’m looking for reassurance that IVF can be successful even with untreated endo. He also thinks Lupron/contraceptive pill not worth it either..,

Thanks in advance

Xx

[zytajones]

Hi Doglover,

I also have severe endometriosis and also had a successful IVF cycle around 6 month after 1st laparoscopy, just like you. Unlike you, my AMH is really low and they didn't want to to another laparoscopy to remove endometriosis as they said this will cause my AMH to drop even further, as it's high chances they might remove even healthy tissue from ovaries and disturb them further. So in my case this was apparently "safer" option. I asked for an opinion for a second consultant (from different clinic) and he said exactly the same thing. They know that my endo is severe again as I had an ectopic pregnancy few years ago which ended up in an emergency surgery, and this is when they confirmed it. But even though, they still think it's safer not too touch it.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to have another child. I was pregnant 3 times, but not successful. I wish to know if I would be successful if I had a surgery, against what doctors think. But this I will never find out.

I reckon, the best you can do is to understand their reasoning against another laparoscopy. (as you do not suffer from low AMH like me). The reasoning against mine laparoscopy makes sense and it's aligning with all the research studies I read.

Good luck xxx

[Doglover5 in reply to zytajones]

Thank you for your advice. I’m so anxious the endometriosis will have ruined our chances. My AMH is good and my endo isn’t on the ovaries but I think it can impact implantation in many ways.

I’m so sorry to hear of your struggles. It’s just a crap disease to have isn’t it xx

[zytajones in reply to Doglover5]

Thank you Doglover.

yes, it's an awful disease and the one which no one wants to talk about and it's more questions then the answers, unfortunately.

it's great to hear that you don't have it the ovaries. Maybe, as Chel suggested, you should do the embryo banking, then "clean" and then the transfers. This way you should be able to max your chances.

i hope you will be successful 😘😛😘

[Chel91]

Perhaps in the meantime you can bank some frozen embryos and then consider doing a "clear out" before transfers? I think this is where it has the biggest affect. Or maybe try 1 of the banked embryos and if no luck then wait?

If it worked last time highly likely it will work again, but I totally understand wishing it would just work. Everybody with endo is different so it's really difficult to know. Sending luck xx

[Doglover5 in reply to Chel91]

Thanks lovely. I hadn’t thought of that. We will maybe try one fresh but could hopefully bank some embryos if I do need an op xx

[Roobs33]

Heya,

Im so sorry that your endo is back and wreaking havoc! It’s such a horrible thing to have. I’ve got stage 4 with bowel involvement. I had an op nearly 2 years ago to remove endo and unstick everything (minus the bowel involvement) & another 6 months after that to clip a tube that was blocked. I’ve just had success after a year of IVF treatments on my second fresh transfer and am 14 weeks. The first round was a failure plus an early miscarriage. The only thing I did differently was take a load of supplements for egg quality, but I’ll obviously never know if this is the reason it worked or if it’s just chance.

Could you ask for an MRI scan, as that might show up something? I’ve definitely heard that further surgery can damage the ovaries and could lower egg reserves. So maybe as others have suggested you could bank some embryos whilst you’re waiting. I know some people do ‘down regulation’ to suppress hormones before doing an IVF round for a few months before. I know people have had success with this. My clinic don’t do that protocol but I’ve spoken to people on here that have had success with that.

I hope you get some answers and decide what to do. Wishing you all the best xxxx

[Annbiel]

Hi there. I was searching for the posts about endo and IVF correlation and found only yours. I had two egg retrievals and on both occasions they found endo in my fluids. Yesterday I got my beta results from the 2nd tranfer and it came out negative. I suggested to the doctors that perhaps we should address my endo and do laparoscopy to which the doctor said, that endo doesnt affect the implantation but of course we could do laparoscopy. I did a bit of my own research and in many papers the conclusion is that indeed endo doesnt affect implantation. I was diagnosed with 'unexplained infertility' a year ago and now I'm not sure if I should go under the surgery to improve my chances or not.

I'm in Switzerland.

[Doglover5]

I think research is quite contradictory. I don’t know if you saw but I have been successful with endo with my first child although it was after my operation. Could you ask for lupron to suppress the endo before a lap? I’ll let you know if I have any luck with our next try next year xx