Tameside General Hospital, Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire, UKEmail: jothi27{at}aol.com
Sir,
In reference to the paper in the September issue of Human Reproduction (Johnson et al., 2004), it is interesting to note that lipiodol tubal flushing improved fertility rates in women with endometriosis-related unexplained infertility. In our hospital we offer lipiodol tubal flushing as a treatment option for all women with unexplained infertility. Couples who are confirmed to have unexplained infertility by biochemical investigations, laparoscopy and semen analysis are given information leaflets regarding lipiodol tubal flushing. For a period of 3 years, 18 women availed this service. Ten women had primary and eight had secondary infertility. The age range was 2938 years, and the women had had ongoing treatment for infertility for the past 25 years. Five women achieved intrauterine pregnancy which was confirmed by a transvaginal ultrasound scan within 6 months of the tubal flushing. We have achieved improvement in pregnancy rates similar to this trial.
References
Johnson NP, Farquhar CM, Hadden WE, Suckling J, Yu Y and Sadler L (2004) The FLUSH trialFlushing with lipiodol for unexplained (and endometriosis-related) subfertility by hysterosalpingography: a randomized trial. Hum Reprod 19, 20432051.
Submitted on October 21, 2004; accepted on November 9, 2004.