ENDOMETRIOSIS AND OVULATORY DISORDER: REDUCED FERTILISATION IN VITRO COMPARED WITH TUBAL AND UNEXPLAINED INFERTILITY

Peter G. Wardle, Wardle PG, P G Wardle, J D Mitchell, Mitchell JD, Alan McDermott, E A McLaughlin, Eileen A. McLaughlin, B D Ray, Ray BD, A McDermott, McDermott A, Hull MG, M.G.R. Hull, M G Hull
Lancet (London, England) · 1985 · vol. 326(8449) , pp. 236–239 · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(85)90289-2 · PMID:2862417 · W1991787564
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 108 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study compared in vitro fertilization outcomes in women with endometriosis, ovulatory disorders, tubal infertility, or unexplained infertility, finding reduced fertilization rates in the endometriosis and ovulatory disorder groups.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) was carried out once for each of 104 couples who had a single cause of infertility. The group with tubal damage was used as the reference for normal fertilising capacity of both oocytes and sperms: the IVF rates were 68% (71/105) per mature oocyte and 88% (37/42) for couples from whom mature oocytes were recovered. Couples with poor sperm/mucus penetration had reduced IVF rates: 32% (12/38) per oocyte and 60% (9/15) per couple. Sperm function, which was judged normal by means of standard seminal analysis and mucus penetration, was confirmed by normal IVF in unexplained infertility: 63% (37/59) per oocyte and 90% (18/20) per couple. Despite favourable sperm function in their partners, women with endometriosis (without tubal damage) had reduced IVF rates: 33% (19/58) per oocyte and 60% (9/15) per couple. These findings indicate that ovulatory disorder is present in endometriosis and suggest that it causes the associated infertility.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Fertilization in Vitro Infertility, Female Adult Age Factors Embryo Transfer Endometriosis Female Humans Infertility, Female Male Oocytes Oocytes Sperm-Ovum Interactions Time Factors

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (29)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-09-08T06:17:11.951632+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:09:45.632124+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-09-08T06:30:58.725006+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK