Premium
The Spontaneous Cure Rate of Various Infertility Factors or Post Hoc and Propter Hoc
Author(s) -
Grant Alan
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.734
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1479-828X
pISSN - 0004-8666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1479-828x.1969.tb02562.x
Subject(s) - infertility , medicine , anovulation , cure rate , pregnancy , pregnancy rate , obstetrics , gynecology , surgery , insulin resistance , genetics , polycystic ovary , insulin , biology
Summary A prospective study has been made on 2,581 patients suffering from primary and secondary infertility. secondary infertility. Thirty‐five per cent of these patients became pregnant during the course of investigation and before any treatment could be given. Half of the pregnancies followed the performance of tuba1 patency tests. Salpingograms were twice as effective in producing a pregnancy as were Rubin's tests (11% versus 5%). Fifteen per cent of 1,177 patients became pregnant after the cause of the sterility was known and before any treatment was given. Anovulation underwent a spontaneous cure in 25% of patients and 20% became pregnant. The spontaneous cure rate amongst patients with tubo‐ovarian adhesions was about 15%. Tubal patency tests frequently have a curative effect where the post‐coital test is Only about 1 in every 7 patients with known infertility factors will become pregnant without treatment. Definitive attempts to cure specific infertility factors were successful in 47% of such patients. If we give the reproductive tract of an infertility patient a good “spring cleaning” by plodding through the various tests for this condition, we can expect a third of the patients to become pregnant without our ever knowing what infertility factors were present. Patients with infertility come to us because they want to be pregnant soon and not sometime. The way to achieve this is by early active investigation and treatment, and not by platitudes, placebos or procrastination.