I often get asked this question, “how soon after my myomectomy can we start trying to get pregnant”? Along the way in my training and ever since, I have heard all kinds of answers from my professors and colleagues:“women need to wait a year” ; “six months”; “three months”; “two months”. None of these answers were based on scientific studies, they were just opinions.
A few years ago there was a study that helped me answer this question. The study was conducted at three hospitals in Japan, where the authors performed a pelvic MRI before and then 6, 12, 24 and 52 weeks after abdominal myomectomies. In addition to the standard MRI, they also injected contrast solution into the women’s veins (which shows up in blood vessels) to see when blood flow in the healing uterine muscle wall was back to normal.
What they found was that all women had healing of the uterine lining area and return to a normal uterine size at around 12 weeks. Also, 12 of the 14 women (86%) had normal blood flow to the uterine muscle by 12 weeks.
Based on this study, it appears that women can start trying to get pregnant three months after myomectomy. Even for the rare patient who heals a bit more slowly, the healing should be complete by the time the uterus starts to grow with the pregnancy. I hope you find this a helpful answer to this frequent question.
Bill Parker, MD
Reference
Tsuji S, Takahashi K, Imaoka I, Sugimura K, Miyazaki K, Noda Y. MRI Evaluation of the Uterine Structure after Myomectomy. Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation. 2006;61:106–110.
