Pregnancy in patients submitted to arterial embolization for uterine leiomyomas

TL;DR

This study finds that about 59% of women who had a procedure to treat uterine tumors were able to get pregnant afterward.

Contribution

The study provides new data on pregnancy rates after UAE for uterine leiomyomas in a specific clinical cohort.

Findings

58.7% of women who wanted to become pregnant after UAE achieved pregnancy.

The most common symptoms before UAE were menorrhagia (97%) and dyspareunia (71%).

The pregnancy loss rate was 13.6% among those who achieved pregnancy.

Abstract

To determine the frequency of pregnancy in patients submitted to uterine
artery embolization (UAE) for the treatment of uterine leiomyomas who
undergo medical follow-up at a clinic in Belo Horizonte.

This study consists of a retrospective cohort study. It is based on data
analysis of electronic medical records of patients who underwent the
embolization procedure for uterine leiomyomas between March 2003 and March
2018.

Out of a total of 587 patients who underwent the UAE procedure to treat
leiomyomas, 150 expressed an interested in becoming pregnant. Among these
patients, 88 successfully achieved pregnancy, representing a frequency of
58.7%. Among the symptoms and signs analyzed prior to the procedure,
menorrhagia (97%) and dyspareunia (71%) were the most commonly observed in
the analyzed patients. According to race/ethnicity, the majority (n=39) of
the patients identified themselves as brown, and the intramural location
(96%) was the most frequent.

The study showed that 58.7% of the women who underwent UAE and expressed an
interest in becoming pregnant were able to achieve pregnancy, with a 13.6%
loss rate. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the key
variables that contribute to the increased likelihood of pregnancy after
leiomyoma embolization procedure, as well as the effectiveness of symptoms
reduction and the actual improvement in pregnancy rates.