Is It Easier to Conceive After a D&C?
I have known several women who conceived two weeks after a miscarriage, or right after having a D&C. I can't figure out the correlation. Is this just a coincidence?
Question:Peg Plumbo CNM
Peg Plumbo has been a certified nurse-midwife (CNM) since 1976. She has assisted at over 1,000 births and currently teaches in the... Read more
There is no documented evidence that having a dilation and curretage (D&C) increases the rate of conception in the subsequent cycle or cycles. I believe the reason that this may appear to be true is that once pregnancy occurs, the situational and hormonal factors that caused the first pregnancy are likely to repeat themselves in order to favor another pregnancy, even though the first one was lost. Also, retained products of conception from a previous pregnancy may cause a state of infertility in the next cycle and a D&C would eliminate this.
A D&C empties the uterus, creating an environment which favors initiation of the cycles of estrogen proliferation and a progesterone induced secretory phase, which would be suitable to an implantation. It might stimulate estrogen and progesterone receptors in the endometrium, which would favor pregnancy as well.
As a whole, however, women who have D&Cs are at greater risk of infection and scarring, which negatively impacts fertility. More and more providers are preferring, for example, to allow miscarriage without surgical intervention, due to the complications sometimes encountered in such operations. In addition, fertility experts prefer endometrial aspirations over curretage to assess the endometrium.
Despite the fact that there is no documentation of this phenomenon, it might still be true that some women find it easier to become pregnant after this procedure.
Answer:
