Mental Health

Appendix May Have Direct Bearing On Pregnancy

By Drishya Nair | Update Date: Jul 06, 2012 08:35 AM EDT

A latest study claims that women who have their Appendix operated on have more chances of getting pregnant.

The study falsifies the earlier notion that an appendix operation can lower a woman's chances of bearing children.

The research is based on a study of data from the UK General Practice Research Database.

Researchers at Dundee University found that from more than 76,000 women who underwent appendicectomy, an operation done only in-case of a life-threatening appendicitis, 39 percent had a first pregnancy within 10 years.

However, among women who had not undergone the surgery, only 28 percent were found to be pregnant. The fertility gap remained after accounting for age, birth control use, number of previous hospitalisations and other factors.

However, researchers said that the research needed further study to determine what exactly causes the phenomenon.

"We are not saying that women should have an appendicectomy to increase their chances of fertility. But the results do show that women who need an appendicectomy should not worry about fertility problems. Fears about infertility after appendicectomy are unfounded," Dr Sami Shimi, a Dundee surgeon who worked on the study was quoted as saying by Mail Online.

Dr Shimi revealed that the study was undertaken by him after many women expressed concerns about conception after the operation.

"A lot of patients think they may become infertile after appendicectomy, but when I looked at the reports supporting this, they were really weak. We decided to do a bigger study, using a large patient database," he said.

Studies earlier had suggested that once a woman undergoes an appendicetomy, a scar tissue is left sticking to her fallopian tube which becomes a hurdle on the way for the egg to reach the uterus.

The study was published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

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