WEDNESDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) -- In women treated with assisted reproductive technology, the temporary exposure to high estrogen levels during ovarian hyperstimulation for in vitro fertilization does not appear to be a significant risk factor for endometriosis recurrence, according to a study published in the August issue of Fertility and Sterility.
Thomas M. D'Hooghe, M.D., Ph.D., of the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues studied 67 women with moderate to severe endometriosis who underwent pelvic reconstructive surgery. Thirty-nine of them subsequently underwent in vitro fertilization, 17 underwent intrauterine insemination, and 11 underwent both fertility procedures.
Twenty-one months after the initiation of ovarian hyperstimulation, the researchers found that the overall endometriosis recurrence rate was 31 percent. But they found that it was significantly lower in women treated with IVF only (7 percent) compared to women treated with intrauterine insemination only (70 percent) or women treated with both procedures (43 percent).
"It is possible that ovarian hyperstimulation for in vitro fertilization does not have an adverse effect on the recurrence of endometriosis," the authors write. "However, it is also possible that women with blocked or dysfunctional tubes due to endometriotic adhesions who are treated with in vitro fertilization are less likely to develop new endometriotic lesions than patients with open fallopian tubes who are exposed to retrograde menstruation every month."
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