Weddingbee boards

How much endo affects fertility depends on the severity of it; the stats are as follows:

If 100 women without endo TTC for 1 year, 85 will fall pregnant

If 100 women with minimal-mild (stage 1-2) endo TTC for 1 year, 75 will fall pregnant

If 100 women with moderate (stage 3) endo TTC for 1 year, 50 will fall pregnant

If 100 women with severe (stage 4 and above) endo TTC for 1 year, 26 will fall pregnant.

In all, about 60-70% of women with endo have no problems conceiving; of the remaining 30-40% only a small number are infertile; most are subfertile (where it can take longer but you can still conceive with minimal intervention).

There are also other issues to consider, eg which areas it affects. For example, I have stage 2 (mild endo), but it affects my ovaries and uterosacral ligaments badly, and during my last lap, both ovaries and uterosacral ligaments were stuck down with adhesions, and I had a lot of ovarian cysts; so, this would obviously cause problems with releasing an egg, which would affect fertility. Whereas other women with mild endo have very little on their ovaries, and no adhesions, and so fertility is much less likely to be affected.

Your best bet is to go on hormone treatments like the pill until you are ready to TTC; the mini-pill and Mirena are both good choices for women with endo as they a) stop menstruation which is great for treating endo and b) leave your system very quickly, so there is no delay in fertility returning as there is with other methods like the combined pill or injection.

I would also speak to a specialist, as usually, if you have something like endo, they like to see you if you haven't fallen pregnant after 6 months to discuss your options (in 'healthy' women they usually wait 12-18 months), as certain treatments inc surgery can boost fertility if you're struggling to conceive.

HTH