Association between appendicectomy in females and subsequent pregnancy rate: a cohort study

ObjectiveTo study whether subsequent pregnancy rate is reduced after appendicectomy.DesignA cohort study was carried out in the General Practice Research Database, a United Kingdom primary care database.SettingUniversity hospital.Patient(s)Female patients who underwent appendicectomy between 1986 and 2009 and appropriate comparators were followed until first pregnancy.Intervention(s)None.Main Outcome Measure(s)The association between appendicectomy and subsequent pregnancy was determined by Cox regression models.Result(s)The analyses included 76,426 appendicectomy patients, with 152,852 comparators from the database. There were 30,030 pregnancies (39.3%) in the appendicectomy cohort and 43,321 (28.3%) in the comparator cohort during a mean (SD) follow-up of 10.5 (6.6) years. Adjusted hazard ratios for subsequent birth rates were 1.54 (95% confidence interval, 1.52–1.56).Conclusion(s)Appendicectomy was associated with increased subsequent pregnancy rate in this study. This suggests that a history of appendicectomy is not associated with impaired fertility.