Damaged or Blocked
Fallopian Tube?

Having a damaged or blocked fallopian tube can make conception very difficult.
Your fallopian tubes transport the egg from the ovaries to your uterus, that is, when they are working and functioning correctly!
If they become blocked or damaged, it can greatly impede your fertility. It’s a common fertility problem, and happens to about of third of women who are having trouble trying to conceive.

Causes of Blocked Or Damaged Tubes

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Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, which comes about usually as a result of a sexually transmitted disease is unfortunately the biggest factor in causing blocked fallopian tubes.

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There are plenty of other reasons your tubes may be blocked including:

- Endometriosis,
- Any prior surgery done that involved the fallopian tubes,
- If you have had an ectopic pregnancy before, or abdominal surgery,
- a ruptured appendix can also be a main factor,
- if you have a history of uterine infections, and
- if you have a history of STD infections especially Chlamydia or Gonorrhea.
Any of these factors could be the cause of you having blocked or damaged tubes.

How Can You Find Out If You
Have Blocked Or Damaged Tubes?

As briefly mentioned before you can get a diagnosis as to whether you have blocked or damaged tubes with a dye test called a hysterosalpingogram (HSG). This is when dye is placed through the cervix to fill up the uterus, once the uterus is full the dye seeps through the fallopian tubes. This is viewed through an x-ray which will reveal if there are any blockages, or not.
If everything is normal, and your tubes are in good order, the dye should go through spilling into the ovaries and pelvic cavity area without any problems.

Treating Blocked Or Damaged Tubes

So what if you have blocked tubes? What can you do?
If you have one tube that isn’t blocked, and you don’t have any other underlying infertility reasons, the news is good, you should be able to get pregnant eventually without fertility assistance.
Your doctor may also possibly prescribe you with some fertility drugs that can help increase your chances of ovulating on the side with the good open tube too.

What If Both Tubes Are Blocked?

If you are unfortunate enough to have both tubes blocked, it is possible that laparoscopic surgery may be performed whereby they try to open the blocked tube or remove scar tissue that is blocking it.
This form of treatment is not guaranteed to work though and isn’t always reliable. It depends on what the blockage is and how old you are, if you are younger you stand to have a better chance of success in falling pregnant after this operation too.

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If the blockage or adhesions aren’t too severe you usually do have a very good chance of pregnancy after surgery, as long as you don’t have any other underlying reasons for infertility.

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If your tubes are blocked, and can’t be unblocked, or if surgery isn’t a good option for you, or perhaps even your male partner has fertility complications – then your best option is to go down the IVF path.