A Ten-year Review of Reproductive Outcome Following Abdominal Myomectomy at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital

Fertility preservation is one of the important factors to be considered post-abdominal myomectomy especially for patients presenting with infertility. Studies have revealed the incidence of achieving pregnancy following myomectomy as 57%. The causal relationship between uterine fibroids and infertility remains unclear.

Aim: To evaluate the reproductive outcome following abdominal myomectomy.

Methods: The study was a 10-year retrospective study of all the cases of uterine fibroid admitted into the gynaecological ward of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between 1st January 2003 and 31st December 2012. Information were coded and analysed using SPSS version 20.

Results: Uterine fibroid accounted for 523(12.2%)% of the 4287 gynaecological admissions during the period under review. The modal age was 33 years ± 2. Nulliparous women contributed the highest incidence of 43.4%.Pregnancy rate following abdominal myomectomy for infertile women in the study population was 24.4%. Twenty women achieved pregnancy within 2 years post-abdominal myomectomy. This represented 32.78% of the 61 infertile patients without any other cause of infertility. Spontaneous abortion occurred in 4 patients (20%), 7 (35%) achieved spontaneous vaginal delivery while 9 (45%) had elective Spontaneous abortion occurred in 4 patients (20%), 7 (35%) achieved spontaneous vaginal delivery while 9 (45%) had elective caesarean delivery.

Conclusion: Generally, one of the reasons why women opt for myomectomy is infertility. However, this study shows the relationship between abdominal myomectomy and pregnancy outcome to be fair.