While you may have never heard of it before, pelvic inflammatory disease causes blocked tubes which can cause infertility. That may be the sad diagnosis you receive when trying to figure out why you can't have a baby. If you haven't reached that point yet or want to alert other women, then learn what you can through this article and then seek out more information.
Let's start with some basic statistics. According to the CDC, about one million women a year come down with an acute case of pelvic inflammatory disease, or PID. That means their symptoms were bad enough that they sought out a doctor for treatment. However, not all women have symptoms that cause them to seek help. This means we don't really know the true numbers of women silently suffering this disease. It could easily be another million women or more a year. In fact they don't know till they find out they are infertile.
While we have no way to know the actual number of women who catch this disease each year, we do know it is more than the one million acute cases. A conservative figure of 12% is given as the amount of these women who end up with blocked tubes and infertility. Just using that on the one million acute cases number, you can see that 120,000 women end up infertile each year. Some authorities give the percentage as 20% which would mean at least 200,000 women. That doesn't count in all the silent sufferers and to do so would make those numbers very scary indeed. Add to this the infertility chances given to women who go through this for the third time, 50%, and it could make even the stoutest soul cry.
While any woman may get pelvic inflammatory disease, those most at risk are 25 and under. Why? Because the cervix in this age group is not mature yet and allows bacteria and other organisms that can cause PID to get through. Some possible sources of these bacteria are getting an STI, douching or exams/surgeries.
As mentioned above, PID leads to scarring of the reproductive organs. It can also lead to ectopic pregnancies, abscesses, adhesions, and chronic pain due to the scarring. While hard to diagnose, pelvic inflammatory disease is rather easy to treat. It is treated with antibiotics. The catch is making sure all the bacteria is caught and destroyed. Having PID leaves your system more fragile and susceptible to further infections. This, the lack of symptoms in some women, and how hard it can be to diagnose are very good reasons to be sure to get regular exams by your doctor.
While all this information is good to know, what happens if you already are infertile due to blocked tubes caused by the PID? Your first course will most likely be checking in with a fertility specialist. His recommendation will most likely be to have IVF if you still want a child. However, there is another possibility that is less expensive and not as time consuming as IVF. That is to have tubal surgery and have the blocked tubes repaired.
During tubal surgery, the surgeon will remove the bad parts and then suture the tube back together. In some cases the fimbrial end, which is the part that catches the egg from the ovary, will have to be rebuilt. You will want a very experienced tubal surgeon for this kind of work. However, the success rates for tubal surgery are better than IVF and give you the chance to keep on making and trying to make babies as long as you can.
It really isn't too late to have your child the natural way even if blocked tubes due to pelvic inflammatory disease has made you temporarily infertile. Find the best tubal surgery specialist you can and fight back against the damage done by this ugly disease. - 15343
Let's start with some basic statistics. According to the CDC, about one million women a year come down with an acute case of pelvic inflammatory disease, or PID. That means their symptoms were bad enough that they sought out a doctor for treatment. However, not all women have symptoms that cause them to seek help. This means we don't really know the true numbers of women silently suffering this disease. It could easily be another million women or more a year. In fact they don't know till they find out they are infertile.
While we have no way to know the actual number of women who catch this disease each year, we do know it is more than the one million acute cases. A conservative figure of 12% is given as the amount of these women who end up with blocked tubes and infertility. Just using that on the one million acute cases number, you can see that 120,000 women end up infertile each year. Some authorities give the percentage as 20% which would mean at least 200,000 women. That doesn't count in all the silent sufferers and to do so would make those numbers very scary indeed. Add to this the infertility chances given to women who go through this for the third time, 50%, and it could make even the stoutest soul cry.
While any woman may get pelvic inflammatory disease, those most at risk are 25 and under. Why? Because the cervix in this age group is not mature yet and allows bacteria and other organisms that can cause PID to get through. Some possible sources of these bacteria are getting an STI, douching or exams/surgeries.
As mentioned above, PID leads to scarring of the reproductive organs. It can also lead to ectopic pregnancies, abscesses, adhesions, and chronic pain due to the scarring. While hard to diagnose, pelvic inflammatory disease is rather easy to treat. It is treated with antibiotics. The catch is making sure all the bacteria is caught and destroyed. Having PID leaves your system more fragile and susceptible to further infections. This, the lack of symptoms in some women, and how hard it can be to diagnose are very good reasons to be sure to get regular exams by your doctor.
While all this information is good to know, what happens if you already are infertile due to blocked tubes caused by the PID? Your first course will most likely be checking in with a fertility specialist. His recommendation will most likely be to have IVF if you still want a child. However, there is another possibility that is less expensive and not as time consuming as IVF. That is to have tubal surgery and have the blocked tubes repaired.
During tubal surgery, the surgeon will remove the bad parts and then suture the tube back together. In some cases the fimbrial end, which is the part that catches the egg from the ovary, will have to be rebuilt. You will want a very experienced tubal surgeon for this kind of work. However, the success rates for tubal surgery are better than IVF and give you the chance to keep on making and trying to make babies as long as you can.
It really isn't too late to have your child the natural way even if blocked tubes due to pelvic inflammatory disease has made you temporarily infertile. Find the best tubal surgery specialist you can and fight back against the damage done by this ugly disease. - 15343
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Discover more about how blocked tubes can be fixed with tubal surgery at http://www.tubal-reversal.net. Let the world's foremost tubal surgery specialist bring your dreams of children back into your life. Meet other women on the message board.
