Prediction of pregnancy in infertile women based on the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's revised classification of endometriosis

Objective: To estimate the empirical relationship between the revised American Society for Reproductive Medicine's classification of endometriosis and pregnancy rates after treatment. Design: Retrospective analysis. Patient(s): Patients seen by four practicing physicians. Intervention(s): Medical and/or surgical therapy for endometriosis. Main Outcome Measure(s): Pregnancy defined as ongoing or delivered. Result(s): There were no significant differences in pregnancy rates across stages of endometriosis. There was a slight decline in pregnancy rates among patients with Stage IV endometriosis, but statistical significance was not achieved. Conclusion(s): The use of an arbitrary weighted system for assigning scores to individual categories of disease, or for computing a total score, has limited the overall effectiveness of the classification system to predict pregnancy. (C) 1997 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.