An extensive meta-analysispublished in the journal Fertility and Sterility revealed that women who have had one ovary surgically removed (unilateral oophorectomy) were less likely to become pregnant than women who have both ovaries and have fewer children after in vitro fertilization.

In the Meta analysis, the researchers included 3,000 papers on the subject, 18 of which were published between 1984 and 2018, including 1,057 IVF attempts for women with one ovary and 45,813 for women with two ovaries. Five studies were included in the analysis of the live birth, and 15 in the pregnancy rate analysis.

It was observed that the likelihood of giving birth and becoming pregnant was lowered by 30% in the group of women with one ovary than in the group of women with both ovaries. As a result, the researchers propose that, while surgery may be the only option in some situations, such as a malignant tumor, women should be given more information about their prospects of having future children after the operation. So, for such women, freezing their eggs before an oophorectomy was a better option.

The researchers currently aimed to see if surgically removing an ovary had any other health consequences, such as the impact on hormone production and the development of other disorders. (Hindustan Times, Apr 22, 2022)