Has anyone conceived without surgery and carried?

Question

My fertility specialist has told me a few things indicate endo (pain, irregularitiesbrown spotting, infertility, early miscarriage) but he thinks we should try egg stimulation first followed by light <a href="https://glowing.com/glow-fertility-program">IVF</a>. Me and husband are freaking out. What if they work and I miscarry because of endo.

I have gone on the anti inflammatory diet since our first consult a month ago and noticed the brown spotting before period has stopped this cycle. I don't think diet is enough though.

Has anyone been given similar advice?

Answer

My doctor suspected that I have endo based on my symptoms, but she suggested that a laparoscopy to diagnose could cause scarring that could make it even harder to conceive.  Since we had already been trying for a year and a half and I am 34 years old, she recommended trying the procedures in the following order:
1) HSG xray
2) IUI 
3) IVF
Fortunately for us, we got pregnant after the HSG.  The dye flushed out my Fallopian tubes and we conceived 7 days later.  I am currently 29 weeks pregnant with my baby girl and everything has been going well!

Answer

You need laparoscopic surgery to diagnose endometriosis. You should have that done way before IVF

Answer

Hi! Used to work for an endo org with many of the top doctors/surgeons in the field- also a patient- wanted to chime in: 
Technically you need a laparoscopic surgery to diagnose endo- although some endo can be preliminarily diagnosed if visuals can be caught with an ultrasound and other symptoms line up (ex: you can see cysts in my ovaries and feel the lesions in my bum- ask my dr 😂😂). This isn’t what you asked but I’m seeing a lot of comments about diagnosis so wanted to clarify. 
Also. Endo can lead to higher risk of miscarriage, that is true but LOTS of women with endo have successful pregnancies. I’ve found the community loves to focus on the doom and gloom- infertility and miscarriage- which, frankly, are risks for every woman, endo or not. Some women with endo have a much harder time getting and/or keeping a pregnancy, and can be more likely to have high risk pregnancies but, again, any woman could experience these things- they are not special to endo. 
I think an anti inflammatory diet is great, I drink raspberry tea for reproductive health and nettle tea for inflammation, daily. How much does your doctor know about endo? Are they a specialist, or can they recommend one? I think trying egg stimulation before IVF- if you’ve been having a hard time conceiving- is a natural next step, but try to consult with an endo doctor first. They are few and far between but with the pandemic and telemedicine you might have some luck!

Answer

I would make my choice (surgery or no surgery) based on my age, egg count, and the extent of the Endo. Do you have large ovarian cysts etc. I had surgery at 29 because I had large cysts on both my ovaries. I was told it would be highly unlikely to conceive this way without IVF. The surgery did reduce the number of eggs quite a bit but I think that the quality of the eggs went up. I conceived 8 months later. Good luck to you. If you plan on going straight to IVF read “It All Starts with the Egg”. There is great advice in there about supplements for women with Endo who are ttc.

Answer

I waited, and the result was that my minimal stage 1 endo damaged my left tube so bad that it had to be removed. Had I had the surgery earlier that may not have happened. The damage to my tube was something called a hydrosalpinx, they discovered after I had an HSG, which is what prompted the surgery, but before that IVF was a push, however the fluid that a hydrosalpinx releases is toxic to
embryos, my dr found some other things he was able to fix. So my point ultimately is do not do IVF before the testing — at the end of the day REs are more like a business so they are going to promote their most expensive product first. GL to you and hopefully you get your bfp soon.

Answer

I have endo and did ivf instead of surgery because my doc doesn’t like to mess with ovaries etc... until you get eggs. I had a little girl and carried her to 40 weeks. Then miscarried my second embryo but after testing it was due to something wrong with embryo. Now, I’m pregnant with twins (1 embryo split). So it is possible. Share your concerns with doctor. There are tests to make sure you the inflammation isn’t bad. Ask about those. Good luck!

Answer

To echo other posters - you may need further testing to indicate endo, though I’m unsure if your doctor has seen what may be endo on your ovaries?  I have bilateral ovarian endometriomas; for this reason I was advised to proceed with IVF or else my eggs reserve would be harmed, and I’m currently 20 weeks pregnant from my 4th (and would have been final before a surrogacy recommendation) PGS frozen transfer.  It was a long road that required that I do a full autoimmune protocol after multiple losses, but it did happen.

Answer

They suspect endo with me too. We just went straight to iuis and then ivf. Sometimes they don’t want to go in because of the risk of damaging ovaries but all doctors are different.

Answer

If you treat endo on the ovaries before Ivf, it can reduce your fertility. That’s probably what he’s talking about. Best case would be to do egg collection and then if you’re worried, do the surgery and then the transfer of the embryo after you’ve healed.

Answer

Update: thanks so much for your support everyone! 
We decided blind faith in fertility specialist was best. It's already hard enough, why work yourself into more of a panic. 
We made it through our 4th round of IVF successfully and I'm up to day 39 with a little pink rice grain making me pee all day. 
To all of you still on your journey, I think about you and the hardships you face everyday. You deserve this just as much as anyone and I hope for nothing but the best for you. 
Now we wait and see.

Has anyone conceived without surgery and carried?

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