Myths of tubal blockage infertility treatment

  According to foreign statistics, 82.4% of patients with ectopic pregnancy are caused by poorly functioning fallopian tubes, so treatment of poorly functioning fallopian tubes is the key to preventing ectopic pregnancy. Due to a variety of factors, many patients have gone into many misunderstandings in the treatment process of tubal incompetence.  1, simply drug oral, drug enema or physiotherapy to treat tubal laxity. About 82.4% of tubal incompetence is caused by infectious inflammation of the fallopian tubes. Infectious inflammation is often transient and short-term. Almost 100% of the tubal adhesions caused by inflammation are permanent, and almost 100% of the tubal incompetence is found in the post-marital infertility examination, when and what caused the tubal adhesions has become a historical headless case, and anti-inflammatory treatment at this period is too late to mend the fold.  The only anti-inflammatory treatment and medication available is during the acute tubal inflammation period. Of course, short-term medication is very important after the tubes are unblocked, as the surrounding tissues are often in a state of inflammation, congestion and edema, which can easily lead to adhesions and obstruction again.  2. Repeated lavage to treat tubal laxity. Due to the advantages of simple equipment, easy operation and low price, tubal lavage was commonly used before the 80s. However, in clinical practice, it was found that the misdiagnosis rate of this method was as high as 50% or more, and it could not determine the site of tubal obstruction, nor could it clarify the severity and nature of tubal obstruction, and there was a risk of tubal rupture and haemorrhage as in ectopic pregnancy.  Because this method is blind, it is impossible to understand the patency of the fallopian tubes under direct vision, and can only be used to analyze and judge whether the tubes are open or not based on the surgeon’s direct sensation, which is often unreliable due to various factors, resulting in a misdiagnosis rate of more than 50% for the diagnosis of patency of the fallopian tubes. In patients with blockage of the umbilical end of the fallopian tubes, because the luminal layer of the umbilical end of the tubes is very thin, the fluid injected through the uterine catheter during the lavage process accumulates in the umbilical end of the tubes bilaterally, and there is no resistance during the fluid injection process.  3. Some hospitals often use laparoscopy, hysteroscopy for tubal intubation and lavage or combined hysteropelvic surgery to treat tubal incompetence.  Laparoscopy for treatment of tubal patency: In recent years, with the massive application of obstetrical and gynecological endoscopy, new methods have been provided for tubal patency examination, including laparoscopic direct vision tubal lavage examination, hysteroscopic intubation lavage test through the tubal opening and combined laparoscopic and hysteroscopic examination, tuboscopy and other methods.  Since endoscopic surgery requires high instrumentation, laparoscopy is still an invasive surgery and can only understand whether the fallopian tubes are patent and the obstruction at the umbilical end of the fallopian tubes and the adhesions around the fallopian tubes, and there is no way to understand the specific blockage or the site and nature of the poorly patent fallopian tubes. At the same time, the conception rate after laparoscopy has been low, which may be related to thermal injury and needs to be alerted!  4. Since tubal incompetence is the main cause of ectopic pregnancy, it is believed that IVF can avoid the occurrence of ectopic pregnancy.  With the development of reproductive medicine and the emergence of IVF, more and more infertility patients, and even some medical professionals, take IVF as the first choice for infertility treatment and abandon basic diagnosis and treatment, which is not only economically costly but also may cause serious complications such as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, and most hospitals highly recommend this technology due to the drive of economic interests.  IVF is one of the assisted reproductive technology methods, which involves fertilizing sperm and eggs in a test tube, i.e., in vitro fertilization, and then transferring the embryonic precursor, the fertilized egg, into the woman’s uterus and developing it into a fetus, which is commonly known as IVF because it is fertilized in a test tube. “IVF is not successful in every treatment cycle.