Adenomyosis is a potential cause of recurrent implantation failure during IVF treatment

Four women, who previously had undergone multiple unsuccessful in vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycles because of failure of implantation of good quality embryos, were identified as having coexisting uterine adenomyosis. Endometrial biopsies showed that adenomyosis was associated with a prominent aggregation of macrophages within the superficial endometrial glands, potentially interfering with embryo implantation. The inactivation of adenomyosis by an ultra-long pituitary downregulation regime promptly resulted in successful pregnancy for all women in this case series.