A suprisingly common medical procedure has been linked with improved fertility

Trying to improve you fertility can require stealth like timing and brute force determination.

It's one of those things that women who aren't trying for a baby seriously take for granted. Things like diet, timing of sex and improving your Zinc intake have been linked to higher fertility in the past. New research, coming from The University of Dundee has shown a surprising correlation between a common medical procedure and a higher rate of fertility. The researchers have found that women who have had their appendix or tonsils removed appear to be more fertile. The study has been going on for 15 years now, and included more than half a million British women who all agreed to have their medical records analysed. The findings have shown that for every 100 pregnant women who didn’t have their tonsils or appendix removed there were

• 134 pregnant women who had their appendix removed
• 149 pregnant women who had their tonsils removed
• and 143 pregnancies in women who had both removed.

These new findings have dispelled a commonly held myth among doctors that having an appendix removed damaged fertility. Speaking to the BBC, Dr Sami Shimi highlighted how important the new findings are for women.

“This [study] is very important in reassuring young women that appendectomy will not reduce their chances of future pregnancies. More importantly, looking at both the appendix and tonsils together, this study confirms beyond doubt that removal of inflamed organs or organs likely to suffer from repeated inflammation, in women, improves their chances of pregnancy.”

Professor Allan Pacey from the University of Sheffield explained to the BBC how he thought the correlation exists

“There are several explanations which may account for these observations, one of which is that the removal of these tissues makes an alteration to their immune system which had an impact to some aspect of the reproductive process (such as how their embryos implant in the womb)”

Experts are predicting that this new finding could lead to new treatments but have strongly advised women to avoid any unnecessary surgical removals.