Is it true that you can’t get pregnant if you have uterine fibroids?

Xiao Chen is a successful white-collar beauty. She has been busy with work and finally met her true love. When she and her fiancé were preparing for their wedding, she was diagnosed with uterine fibroids during a physical examination at her company.

Xiao Chen knew that her fiancé's whole family was looking forward to the couple having children after marriage, and they themselves were also looking forward to becoming parents. Now that they had this disease, everything was probably going to be in vain. Xiao Chen felt very desperate when she thought about this, and even wanted to give up on this marriage.

The real reason for infertility caused by uterine fibroids

In fact, Xiao Chen's concerns are unnecessary. According to medical statistics, most patients with uterine fibroids do not have their fertility affected, and uterine fibroids are definitely not a common cause of infertility.

Infertile patients with uterine fibroids often have other real reasons, such as obstructed fallopian tubes, ovulation disorders, etc.

Infertility caused by uterine fibroids is mainly seen in submucosal fibroids. Other fibroids that do not exceed 5 cm, especially those growing between the uterine muscle walls, will neither affect menstruation nor pregnancy, and do not even need to be removed.

Even if uterine fibroids require surgical treatment, you can consider pregnancy after one year of contraception after surgery. This is because the uterus will basically recover six months after surgery, ensuring that it will not rupture during pregnancy.

Not only that, for women of childbearing age who are diagnosed with uterine fibroids and plan to have children, doctors will recommend that they get pregnant early. This is not because they are afraid that they will not be able to have a baby if it is too late, but because pregnancy itself has a therapeutic effect on the disease.

Since the growth of fibroids is related to the levels of estrogen and progesterone in the body, larger fibroids lack effective estrogen receptors inside, which reduces the effect of estrogen. Therefore, some larger fibroids can remain unchanged or even shrink during pregnancy.

How to choose the treatment for uterine fibroids?

Of course, if a woman wants to prepare for pregnancy after surgery, she needs to carefully choose "endometrial ablation" and "uterine artery embolization" when choosing the treatment for uterine fibroids.

Because the former will insert a thin catheter into the uterus through the vagina and cervix, and achieve the purpose of treating fibroids by slightly "destroying" the uterine lining. However, this damage will also affect the subsequent pregnancy and fertility of the uterus.

The latter involves pushing a thin catheter into the uterus through the leg artery, and then using plastic beads to block the arteries that supply blood to the fibroids to shrink the fibroids. However, at the same time, the local blood supply to the uterus is also blocked, which is not conducive to future pregnancy and childbirth.

Therefore, these two minimally invasive treatments are generally only used for women who have given birth and do not plan to have more children. For women who plan to have children, ultrasonic ablation can be considered. On the one hand, it can increase the chance of pregnancy by improving the uterine pregnancy environment, and it can also avoid the corresponding complications caused by the growth of uterine fibroids during pregnancy.

It is recommended to arrange pregnancy 3 months after ultrasound ablation based on the recovery of the uterus. Generally, within 3-6 months after ablation, the fibroids are rapidly absorbed and reduced, the sterile inflammation after ablation also subsides, and the uterus recovers quickly, which is conducive to pregnancy.

Therefore, for Xiao Chen, there is absolutely no need to worry blindly about being diagnosed with uterine fibroids, or even give up a good marriage because of it.

By closely monitoring uterine fibroids and choosing appropriate treatments under the guidance of a doctor, Xiao Chen can let go of her burdens, have children with the person she loves, and start a happy marriage life.

Note: There is no copyright issue for the pictures in this article

Author: Chu Yi, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences

About the Author

Chu Yi

She is a full-time teacher at the Practice Teaching Center of Shanghai Health Medical College, a Chinese technical guidance expert for the 45th World Skills Competition, a member of the expert group of the China "Standardized Patient" (SP) Practice Teaching Steering Committee, and a member of the CSPC (Youth Expert Committee) of the Health Science and Technology Working Committee of the China International Science and Technology Promotion Association. She has been engaged in teaching courses such as "Geriatric Nursing", "Internal and Surgical Nursing" and "Community Nursing" for a long time.

Funded by Shanghai Science and Technology Commission's Science Popularization Project

(Project No.: 20DZ2311100)