Fertility and Miscarriage Incidence After Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Treatment by Thermal Ablation: A Cohort Study

Objective

To assess the impact of thermal ablation (TA) for the treatment of cervical dysplasia on fertility and pregnancy outcomes among women screened for cervical cancer in Cameroon.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Dschang health district, Cameroon.

Population

Participants aged 30–45 years from two screening trials conducted between 2015 and 2020 in Dschang District Hospital.

Methods

Participants were primarily screened for human papillomavirus infection, triaged by visual inspection and treated by TA if needed. Between October 2021 and March 2022, interviews on subsequent fertility were conducted with participants treated by TA and a control group of untreated women.

Main Outcome Measures

Pregnancy and miscarriage after screening/treatment.

Results

A total of 760 participants (219 treated and 541 untreated) completed the survey, with a mean follow-up time of 1297 days. Sixty-two women (28.3%) treated by TA reported a pregnancy postscreening versus 165 (30.5%) in the control group (p = 0.550). Adjusted for potential confounders, the hazard ratio of pregnancy for treated compared with untreated women was 0.82 (0.54–1.24, p = 0.350). Among women reporting pregnancies with a known outcome and which were not voluntarily terminated, 18 (35.3%) treated participants had a miscarriage versus 31 (21.4%) in the control group (p = 0.048). In the adjusted model, no association remained between TA and miscarriage (1.04, 0.39–2.78, p = 0.935).

Conclusions

In our study population, TA did not significantly impact fertility nor miscarriage risk. Our results support the widespread use of TA as a treatment of choice for precancerous cervical lesions in low-income settings.