By Isobel Williams via SWNS
Women who have had a C-section are more likely to have problems conceiving again, a new study reveals.
The research discovered that women with a prior C-section had a 10 percent decreased chance of conceiving their next pregnancy.
They also discovered that this link worked in the other direction, with women who took over a year to conceive being 21 percent more likely to deliver the child via C-section.
These women with conception issues were also much more likely to develop serious health difficulties such as high blood pressure.
PhD candidate Yeneabeba Sima from The University of Bergen in Norway, said: “In our study, women with difficulty conceiving have a higher prevalence of pregnancy complications.
“There is also a higher prevalence of chronic health issues like diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure among these women.
“However, the increased risk of having a C-section still existed for women who didn’t have these health issues.”
Previous studies concluded that reduced fertility following C-section could be a side effect of the surgical operation.
However, in their study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, they suggest that common underlying risk factors could contribute to both reduced fertility and C-section.
Sima continued: “Maternal stress might be one reasonable explanation connecting challenges in conceiving and an elevated risk of labor difficulties, ultimately leading to a higher likelihood of C-section.
“Our findings suggest that the observed reduced ability to conceive after C-section may be linked to underlying maternal conditions not registered in our data or not yet clinically emerged, and the surgical procedure may not directly influence this pathway.”
To get their results the team did a questionnaire to discover whether or not women had planned their pregnancies.
The researchers examined differences in time spent trying to conceive among 42,379 participants.
She added: “For those who actively tried to have a baby, we examined the time it took for them to conceive. If they had tried for a year or more before getting pregnant, they were considered to have reduced fertility.”
