Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure which helps the doctors to see inside the body using telescope like instrument which has a camera attached to its end. Laparoscopic surgery is a very helpful in infertility cases. It can be simultaneously used as a diagnostic procedure as well as corrective procedure. In many cases where no aetiology of infertility is found called Unexplained infertility, it can be useful to identify infertility factors difficult to be picked up by routine investigations (mild endometriosis, adhesions). Hence serving as a diagnostic procedure. In our country where genital tuberculosis is so common it is very important to do laparoscopy and find out hidden causes like tuberculosis which may be leading to infertility. Sometimes when tuberculosis is detected as cause of infertility, treating the patient with six to eight months of antitubercular drugs improve the outcome.
Many times, it is used as a corrective procedure in infertility when women present with multiple fibroids (removal), huge endometrioma (drainage & removal), large adenomyotic uterus (myo reduction of uterus) and enlarged fluid filled tube called Hydrosalpinx (removal or disconnection). These procedures are carried out prior to undergoing IVF/ART. Nowadays in our unit, we first do IVF and freeze the embryos. If there are less embryos, we repeat the cycles till we have enough frozen embryos After that we do laparoscopy hysteroscopy for abnormalities and correct them. After 3 to 6 months post-surgery, we transfer the frozen thawed embryos back. This has given us excellent results.
