Objective: To determine the frequency of pregnancy in patients submitted to uterine artery embolization (UAE) for the treatment of uterine leiomyomas who undergo medical follow-up at a clinic in Belo Horizonte.
Methods: This study consists of a retrospective cohort study. It is based on data analysis of electronic medical records of patients who underwent the embolization procedure for uterine leiomyomas between March 2003 and March 2018.
Results: Out of a total of 587 patients who underwent the UAE procedure to treat leiomyomas, 150 expressed an interested in becoming pregnant. Among these patients, 88 successfully achieved pregnancy, representing a frequency of 58.7%. Among the symptoms and signs analyzed prior to the procedure, menorrhagia (97%) and dyspareunia (71%) were the most commonly observed in the analyzed patients. According to race/ethnicity, the majority (n=39) of the patients identified themselves as brown, and the intramural location (96%) was the most frequent.
Conclusions: The study showed that 58.7% of the women who underwent UAE and expressed an interest in becoming pregnant were able to achieve pregnancy, with a 13.6% loss rate. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the key variables that contribute to the increased likelihood of pregnancy after leiomyoma embolization procedure, as well as the effectiveness of symptoms reduction and the actual improvement in pregnancy rates.
Keywords: fertility; pregnancy; uterine artery embolization; uterine leiomyomas.