Controversias en el tratamiento de la endometriosis en la mujer estéril

Endometriosis is a very complex disease that limits the lives of women who suffer from it in many areas of their lives, both due to the painful symptoms it causes and the medical complications it generates. In addition, it is capable of causing sterility by different mechanisms.

In the present work we intend to review the management of the patient with endometriosis and sterility, which has important particularities with respect to the usual treatment of endometriosis. Most of the medical treatments used have an anovulatory effect, which is why they prevent pregnancy, and surgical treatments can in turn have a detrimental effect on the ovarian reserve and the time necessary to achieve pregnancy. On the other hand, assisted reproduction techniques do not always achieve the desired objective and may require associated surgeries such as in the case of the presence of hydrosalpinx or ovaries not accessible to follicular puncture.

We also carried out a critical review of the medical literature and the guidelines of the different scientific societies to try to establish general criteria for the approach to these patients with endometriosis and sterility, who as a general rule should be treated by assisted reproductive techniques. A special analysis is made of the specific situations in which a differentiated approach with previous surgery is required when the function of a pelvic organ is in danger or in deep endometriosis.