Endometriosis impacts 10 percent of women and up to 50% of women experiencing infertility. It makes sense, then, that Dr. Mark Rispler frequently sees patients worried that endometriosis will ruin their chances for getting pregnant. It’s true that endometriosis can build up and block fallopian tubes, or affect an embryo’s ability to implant. The truth, though, is that even fertility specialists do not have definitive answers about endometriosis as a cause of female infertility.
10 Puzzling Facts about Endometriosis
- Some women with endometriosis have no symptoms.
- For women with symptoms, the degree of pelvic pain does not correspond with the severity (or stage I-IV) of endometriosis.
- There is no cure or absolute cause.
- Some lifestyle changes can help women manage the symptoms.
- One agreed upon cause, retrograde menstruation, occurs in 96% of women, but only causes endometriosis in a small percentage of cases.
- Surgery can help diagnose it, but not necessarily cure it.
- Endometriosis can grow into the bladder and other areas outside the pelvic cavity, even causing rectal bleeding.
- No one is certain why some women with endometriosis have pain, and others do not.
- Patches of endometrial tissue can be clear, white, brown, red, black or blue.
- Some endometriosis cysts fill with thick brown fluid, and are called chocolate cysts.
Learn more about endometriosis, where it forms, why it likely occurs, and what fertility doctors recommend. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine provides this educational video on endometriosis.
Dr. Rispler will diagnose endometriosis by initiating a conversation about your family and medical history, and conducting a vaginal exam and sonogram. Minimally invasive fertility surgery can confirm the diagnosis.
Dr. Rispler may recommend super ovulation with intrauterine insemination (IUI), or in-vitro fertilization (IVF) when endometriosis causes infertility.
Contact Innovative Fertility Center for more facts about endometriosis, and to make a plan for getting pregnant.