226 endometriosis were any of the following: presence of a solid (invasive) hypointense lesion (with or without high signal intensity foci on T1/T2) outside the uterine cavity corresponding to adhesive endometriosis plaques; hyperintense (multiple) ovarian cysts on T1, or one or more cysts with high T1 signal intensity and shading on T2 corresponding to haemorrhagic endometriomas. All pelvic MRIs carried out in women of a fertile age during the study period were re-evaluated by a study investigator (CR) and three pelvic radiologists, and were assigned to either an adenomyosis only, endometriosis only or combined endometriosis and adenomyosis sub-group. Subsequently, patient records of women with MRI-confirmed adenomyosis and/or endometriosis were assessed to identify women who underwent IVF or ICSI procedures in our centre. In the case of multiple MRIs, the one performed closest to IVF/ICSI treatment was assessed. Women were excluded in case there was no MRI or IVF/ICSI data, if no embryo transfer took place, or if they objected to the use of their medical data. Control group For the control group, women between 18 and 42 years old who underwent their first, fresh IVF/ICSI cycle with embryo transfer between 2008 and 2020 due to confirmed male subfertility were included. Adenomyosis was assumed as not present if the patient had no reported uterine abnormalities and no reported history of symptoms associated with adenomyosis or endometriosis. Patients were excluded if no embryo transfer took place (e.g. freeze all, IVF cancellation), if there were signs of adenomyosis on TVUS or MRI (if available), or if they objected to use of their medical data. Matching Patients from the adenomyosis/endometriosis groups were automatically matched to the control group using SPSS Statistics to male subfertility controls. Matching was performed to account for various clinically significant confounders, namely: age during IVF, type of subfertility (i.e. primary or secondary) and number of embryos transferred (single or double embryo transfer). Since adenomyosis can be asymptomatic and often goes undiagnosed, total exclusion of adenomyosis from the control group could not
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw