Outdated pseudoscience that having a baby cures endometriosis is still being touted to women and girls by medical professionals, with a new study showing the advice is having “profound and often negative patient impacts”.
Published in the medical journal BMC Women’s Health on Tuesday, the study found almost 90 per cent of endometriosis patients surveyed were advised by their health professional that pregnancy reduces endometriosis lesions or symptoms, despite the lack of evidence to support that claim.
Endometriosis is a severe inflammatory condition caused by tissues that resembles the uterus lining, the endometrium, growing outside the uterus. There is no cure.
Symptoms vary but can include frequent, intense pelvic pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety and infertility.
One in 9 women and those assigned female at birth, or 190 million people globally, are affected by the disease.
The study’s researchers– from the University of Adelaide, the University of Sydney and the endometriosis charity EndoActive– found that out of the 3,347 endometriosis patients who answered the survey, 1, 892 reported their health professional told them to have a baby to manage pain or treat endometriosis.
Also, 36 per cent of the patients were told pregnancy would cure endometriosis altogether.
The study concluded that “profound and often negative patient impacts” resulted from this advice, including “hastening the making of major life decisions” to plan for pregnancy, “eroding trust with healthcare professionals, worsening mental health and straining relationships”.
One participant was only 13-years-old when she was given advice by her doctor to get pregnant. She told the researchers that “it wasn’t appropriate”, so she ignored it and continued with her high school studies.
Another participant described how the advice to become pregnant to treat her endometriosis had severely strained her relationship, saying: “I felt a huge pressure to have kids young and my partner couldn’t understand the intense conversation at a young age.”
Women’s health organisation, Jean Hailes also advises that pregnancy does not cure the disease, and while endometriosis symptoms may improve, some women continue to experience pain through their pregnancy.
The incidence of infertility is 30–50 per cent higher for people with endometriosis, which the BMC Women’s Health study says could be another reason that doctors are inclined to tell patients to try for pregnancy.
Nevertheless, the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Guidelines for Management of Endometriosis states as well that pregnancy should not be recommended as a cure for endometriosis, as it does not always lead to improvement in symptoms or arrest disease progression.
“Providing evidence-based information on the treatment and management of endometriosis is essential,” the study says.
“Pregnancy or having a baby should not be suggested as a treatment for endometriosis and the provision of this advice by healthcare professionals can have negative impacts on those who receive it.”