Pregnancy or Laparoscopy surgery first?

Hello! First of all sending you lots of baby dust your way for your pregnancy! I found out that I had endo during my infertility journey and my doctor didn’t want me to get surgery before pregnancy, because she said sometimes they remove part of the ovaries…so although I had a couple of endometriomas I ended up doing 3 months of Depot lupron which helps with endo (so I went the meds route instead of surgery) and then did an embryo transfer and it worked! I’m now 34 weeks pregnant! Hope it helps! Good luck x

@Fed thanks for the info! I've been so discouraged as we're 6 months into trying to conceive & no luck, yesterday they found a fibroid & the 3cm endo cists & I just broke down. Felt like they were telling me I'll never be able to conceive (they didnt say, i just felt like that) & getting a hysterectomy & going through menopause will be my only option to really get rid of it. How has your pregnancy been with endo?

I was given both options, and I went with surgery before because of what I had could have been increased miscarriage risk. So we went with surgery to make sure everything was as good as it could be for a baby. I had a lot done though- endometriosis removal, scar tissue removal from previous surgery, fibroid removal, septate in my uterus removed and some ovarian drilling for PCOS.

From my understanding endo is asleep during pregnancy…please don’t quote me on it though! All my symptoms have been pregnancy related…from what I read endo may hurt more after pregnancy but it took us 4 years of us trying to get to here so sincerely I take any symptoms at this point as long as I have a healthy baby :) Just don’t give up! There are many things that help to be able to conceive with endo! And live with endo! def when you find out it feels very discouraging, I was def a bit angry! But just look into all your options and research on your own and maybe seek more than one doctor opinion?

@Fed this may be a dumb question but idk much about ivf & stuff. When you say you did the embryo transfer, is it your own embryo & partner sperm or is it another person's embryo? I may want to look into this, but only if I was able to use my own

Remove first and request to have tubes flushed! (My recurrent miscarriage unit asked me to ask my surgeon and he did it) - apparently conception rates increase massively after having them flushed xx

@Ashley i was lucky enough that I was able to used my own eggs and my husband sperm :)

The jury is out in terms of evidence for or against removing small endometriomas and the effect on spontaneous pregnancy rates, I'm afraid. If you're having regular periods, it's likely that you are ovulating monthly. The general consensus is that they are removed if you're undergoing fertility treatment and that you should be referred for fertility treatment after 1 year of trying instead of the standard 2 if you have known endometriosis. The concern is that there is potential to need to remove the whole ovary instead of just the cyst, which isn't ideal. There is also potential for reducing ovarian reserve and, therefore, fertility by removing the cyst. My advice would be to keep up with regular aex 3 times a week for a year and then be referred for fertility investigations if you haven't got pregnant before then. Unless you're in significant pain from the endometriosis, in which case ask for referral sooner. Xxx

@Jo so you don't think getting pregnant with the endo cyst & a fibroid should be an issue? Would it get smaller or bigger you think during pregnancy?

NICE recommend excision of endometriosis and removal of endometriotic cysts to possibly improve chance of spontaneous conception but ovarian reserve needs to be considered. Xx

Fibroid shouldn't be an issue unless it is inside the uterine cavity. The cyst should get smaller in pregnancy. X

@Ashley I had mine drained instead of removed during my laproscopy and found out I was pregnant 3 months later (also had tubes flushed) I had pain on right hand side and they checked and confirmed there was an endometrioma again…. So it either reformed or a new one came. Haven’t been checked since having my little girl and I’m pregnant again now! X

Endometriomas can be a sign of deep infiltrating endo. I would recommend excision surgery and removal of any cyst before trying to conceive. Having surgery done by the right doctor can make all the difference. Speaking from personal experience , I was able to get pregnant after surgery. I have an endo IG page - @endobabee that shares my journey and information 🫶🏼

I had a lap and one month later got pregnant! It can really help improve pregnancy outcomes. 21 weeks now. Best of luck to you

I had excisions surgery and fibroid removed IVF I now have a healthy 11 month old now tomorrow I have another surgery to have another fibroid removed so we can move forward with another round of IVF

My doctor recommended surgery before IVF. But if you get pregnant first naturally, hopefully you will be ok. 🙏🏻

I couldn’t get pregnant to save my life. Tried for 35 cycles including 6 rounds of IVF. Eventually got the lap excision surgery (I had stage 2) and the next cycle I was pregnant. I would have chosen pregnancy but just wasn’t up to me. Good luck!