Can tuberculosis affect Female fertility? Guidelines to follow

Female fertility is given much importance by the medical experts as a healthy family is very important. Tuberculosis can affect female fertility and needs to be treated soon.

Tuberculosis is no doubt preventable with timely treatment and proper attention. The infection does affect one’s lungs, leading to pulmonary tuberculosis, and is contagious. The disease is not just restricted to the lungs but spreads to parts of the body too, thus causing extrapulmonary tuberculosis or secondary tuberculosis which can be very serious.

Female fertility is of much concern to medical experts.

Extrapulmonary or secondary TB is indeed more dangerous for women. The primary infection of tuberculosis can affect the lungs, and an extrapulmonary infection can affect any part of one’s body. The infection does spread via a hematogenous route i.e., mainly via blood to the other sites of one’s body such as urinary tract, genital tract, bones and joints, etc., thereby infecting them. If it does reach the genital areas of a woman, it could rather lead to severe consequences and account for infertility.

The link between genital TB and infertility

The challenging aspect of genital TB is that it is asymptomatic and in fact, shows no sign till it is too late. There are times when the infection might have affected the genital organs and also the reproductive tract of a woman so badly that medical intervention is also of very little help.

The silent symptoms

The problem with genital TB is that it does not indicate any visible symptoms to start treatment early; yet, there are subtle signs that can indicate a problem, if the woman has suffered from pulmonary TB in the past.

These symptoms are:

• Pain in her pelvic area.
• Irregularity in menstrual cycles (suffering from rather scanty or heavy periods).

Both these symptoms could indicate something seriously wrong with the genital organs of a woman, especially after suffering a bout of pulmonary TB.

• Endometrial biopsy: An endometrial biopsy usually highlights if anything wrong with the inner lining of the endometrium, as to why pregnancy is not possible. The biopsy helps to identify tuberculosis infection in most of the cases.
• Culture of menstrual blood: A menstrual blood culture happens to be another approach to identifying the infection, especially if it shows signs of being in the vaginal lining, the cervix, or the vulva.
• Laparoscopy: A detailed lapro-hysteroscopy does indicate an idea about the extent of damage that happened to the reproductive organs due to the TB infection.

Treatment for genital TB

Once the diagnosis is done, then steps are taken to enable the woman to revive the functioning of her reproductive organs and overcome infertility.

• ATT treatment

Ways to prevent it

• Treating the infection early.
• Most people tend to stop the treatment once the symptoms subside. This is when the bacterial strain mutates and then becomes resistant to drug therapy.
• Untreated primary infection is the utmost cause of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. In very rare cases, sexual intercourse with a partner, suffering from genital tuberculosis can cause the same. This occurrence is very rare. Yet, if the partner is recovering from TB, it is better to practice safe sex method.

Steps to prevent genital TB

• Simple hygiene practices.
• Eating nutritious foods to boost immunity.
• Since TB happens to be highly contagious and spreads via the droplets of cough while sneezing, infected people need to stay away.

Conclusion

Thus, Tuberculosis (TB) can widely affect fertility in women, and the lungs get affected as well as pulmonary functions, but if not diagnosed timely, the disease can spread and cause secondary infections in the fallopian tubes. It can also cause damage to the woman’s uterus and ovaries, thus causing infertility among females.