Investigation of influence on menstruation and fertility after treatment of uterine myoma with uterine arterial embolization

Abstract

Objective To study the prognosis, including menstruation, ovarian function and fertility after the treatment of uterine myoma with uterine arterial embolization (UAE). Methods From October 2007 to November 2011, a total of 56 patients who were diagnosed as symptomatic uterine myoma through ultrasound, MRI and gynecological examination in Chengdu Second People's Hospital were admitted to this study, excluding endometrial lesions and malignant cervical lesions. All the 56 patients were treated with bilateral uterine artery intubation for UAE therapy. A retrospective analysis was applied to analyze the medical records. Statistic analysis was used to evaluate the volume of uterine myoma and uterine, the menstruation, hormones levels and fertility of the subjects. The study procedure was in accordance with ethical standard of the hospital clinical study ethics committee and approved by the committee. The grouping information was acknowledged by the subject's approval and informed consent forms were signed by every subject. Results ① After three months of treatment with UAE, the volumes of uterine myoma and uterine both were significantly decreased than those before treatment with UAE, and the differences were statistically significant (P 0.05). ④ After three years of following-up, among the 15 cases of patients with desire for pregnancy, 3 cases showed gestation and labor without preterm labour, miscarriage and other complications of maternal diseases. The average time to get pregancy was 11.5 months after UAE treatment. The fertility rate in the study was 20% (3/15). Conclusions UAE is a safe and effective therapy method to uterine myoma, and has minimal effect on the menstruation and fertility. Since the sample size of the current study is quite small, UAE treatment still needs multiple center and large sample size and random case-control study to further clarify the effect on the fertility of the patients with uterine myoma. Key words: Myoma, uterus; Artery, uterus; Embolism; Menstruation disturbances; Fertility; Complications