Fertility and contraceptive issues after kidney transplantation in women.

PURPOSE: Our purpose was to investigate reproductive performance among kidney transplant recipients.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We studied 126 kidney transplanted women 15 to 68 years of age including 33 who were single and 93 who were married.

RESULTS

Infertility was seen in 10.4% of those who desired pregnancy, a rate similar to the general population. The most common method of contraception was coitus interruptus (56%), 22% of patients had tubal ligation, 6% had husbands who had vasectomies, 14% were using condoms, and only 2% used oral contraceptives. Among 33 pregnancies, 16 were unintended (48.5%). Most of the patients with unwanted pregnancy were using coitus interruptus (93.7%). In the group with unintended pregnancy, abortion was induced in three, spontaneous abortion or intrauterine fetal death occurred in six, and only seven pregnancies resulted in a live birth (43.7%).

CONCLUSION

Kidney transplantation greatly improves fertility, so those who do not desire pregnancy should be protected by an effective method of contraception.