Can you get pregnant if one tube is blocked?

Can you get pregnant if one tube is blocked?

Can you get pregnant if one tube is blocked?

Transcription :

Dr. Mark Sklar:

So, you found out that your fallopian tubes are blocked and you’re wondering if you can still get pregnant naturally. Well the short answer is yes, but it’s not as straightforward as that and I want to dive deeper into that topic today in this video. So, keep watching to learn more. My name is Dr. Mark Sklar, also known as the fertility expert and welcome to FertilityTV, your YouTube channel dedicated to helping you get pregnant. I’ve been working with couples for over 18 years through my online coaching programs and right here in sunny, San Diego at both of my clinics. And I work with couples all over the world to help you get pregnant naturally, that’s my goal. And so, whether you have a block fallopian tube or not, my goal is still for you to get pregnant naturally. So, we’re going to dive into that topic today a little bit more. Now before I do that, I do want to let you all know that my Hope Coaching Program is open for enrollment.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

And if you’re interested in working with me and my team on your fertility journey, then I want to invite you to apply to see if we can support you and help you get pregnant. You can use the link in the description below to apply. So, last week I spoke about ectopic pregnancies and what they are and how they can impact your fertility and impact your ability to conceive naturally. Well the reason why I’m mentioning that now is because ectopic pregnancies are actually a cause for blocked fallopian tubes. And if you have a blocked fallopian tube, it can make it more difficult for you to conceive naturally. So, let’s get into some of these details. The first question is going to be, do you have one tube blocked or both tubes blocked? If you have one fallopian tube blocked, then your chances of conceiving naturally are much higher.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

If you have both fallopian tubes blocked, then the first thing we need to determine is how severe the blockages are? Can they be unblocked and opened? For what length of time do we think they’ll stay open? And then if not, what are your other options? So, let’s talk about some of those things right now. There are degrees and severities of a blocked fallopian tube. Now I just had a woman that I was coaching and she went to do her HSG, which is the dye test. Okay, and this is the test that actually tells us, the first test that tells us if your fallopian tubes are open or not. And the first test she had done, she said that the tech told her that the fallopian tubes were blocked. And typically my suggestion when this happens is to have a second one done because they’re not always accurate and sometimes what happens because of the pressure of the dye pushing through what can happen is that the fallopian tubes kind of kink and spasm as a result of that pressure. And so, it might seem like they’re blocked, but they’re really not.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

So, I had her go back for a second HSG and sure enough, her fallopian tubes are open and working just fine. So, we do want to confirm and I often suggest doing that twice if you’ve been told that you have a blocked tube or tubes for that matter because we want to confirm and make sure before we make drastic decisions on how to move forward. We also want to understand the severity of the blockage, right? Is it a minor blockage because something’s kinked? Is there some buildup in that when they push the dye through it, opens it up and gets rid of that mucus or blockage? Is it more severe? Like they know they don’t even see the dye going into the tube, right? We want to understand all of that because that can impact some of the decisions you need to make and certainly the other part of that is, is it one fallopian tube or both? Because that will also impact our decisions moving forward.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

Now with one, I always tell everybody you can absolutely conceive if you have got one healthy fallopian tube. I should say you can absolutely conceive naturally if you’ve got one healthy fallopian tube. It just might be a little bit more difficult, meaning it might take a little bit longer of time to conceive because you only have one and it’s got to go and manage both ovaries. If you have both fallopian tubes blocked and it’s a severe blockage, then we do really need to consider IVF and look down that road because the time that it takes to unblock the fallopian tubes, the length of time that they’ll remain open because they don’t often remain open for an extended period of time if they are able to be opened, just might be challenging with the timing of when you want to conceive and your family planning. And so, IVF might be the most logical and safe option moving forward. And those are definitely conversations you need to have as couple and with your healthcare provider team and potentially OB GYN and fertility doctor.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

What are the root causes? What are the main reasons why we might have blockages? Well endometriosis is definitely at the top of that list. And if you have endometriosis, we definitely want to make sure that your fallopian tubes are open and functioning properly and also be mindful that the severity of endometriosis might impact the health of the fallopian tubes in the future. So, it’s something that we always want to be on top of and supportive. I do have other videos where I go into much more detail as it relates to endometriosis. So, you can check those out as well. The second main cause is going to be STD, sexually transmitted diseases. So, if you’ve been with multiple partners, if you don’t know who they’ve been with, and if neither one of you were tested previously and you didn’t get the clear, then I do suggest being tested for STDs. If you know that you’ve had an STD in the future, but it wasn’t treated in a quick fashion, meaning appropriately and fast enough, then we do need to look at the health of your fallopian tubes.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

STDs can absolutely block the fallopian tubes, cause inflammation, cause scarring, all sorts of complications.So, we want to make sure that that is absolutely addressed and ruled out as a potential cause for any of these issues. I actually went into a whole slew of potential causes for an ectopic pregnancy, which are very similar to reasons why you could have a blocked fallopian tube in my last video last week. So, if you didn’t watch that, you can go back and check that out as well. And then you can always come back to this video when you’re done with one to get more information on this topic.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

As I mentioned earlier in this video, we did talk about HSGs, right? So, this is the dye test to see if your fallopian tubes are open. And as I mentioned, I just want to remind all of you, sometimes those tests are not perfect or we get conflicting information. And so, sometimes you might find out like the story I shared earlier that you were told that you have a block fallopian tube, but you don’t if you do a second one, they find out that it’s open. So, we do want to potentially have that test redone to confirm. And once again, HSGs can be diagnostic and can actually be some form of a treatment because if there is a little bit of mucus or blockage in the fallopian tubes, they can often open that up and clear it up and then you have actually an increased chance of conception that cycle as well.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

So, you have found out that you have a blocked fallopian tube or tubes and you want to know what your options are in terms of treatment. What can you do to address those things and hopefully get pregnant naturally? Well the first one is going to be surgery. Now that depends on the severity of the situation, how severe the blockage is,, maybe if there’s scar tissue, any other underlying complications or issues in the uterine cavity and with the fallopian tube. But surgery is definitely an option. Now the surgery can open up the fallopian tubes, but how long those tube open will depend on the severity of the situation. So again, something to evaluate and understand. But if you’re able to open those up through surgery, then you want to start trying immediately to give yourself the best chance of conception.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

Another option for treatment is going to be medication. They could potentially use medication depending on what the cause is by the way of the blockage, they can use some medication to open that up as well. And if you want to consider IVF as a form of treatment for blocked fallopian tubes then yes, that is also an option for you. If the tubes can’t be opened, then IVF would be a natural course of treatment as well to help bypass the fallopian tubes and just focus on conception in the uterine cavity. But all of you watch me because you want natural options. And so, there are some natural options to help support and open up the fallopian tubes. Support, meaning support the function of the fallopian tubes and then open or hopefully clear any blockages. Now depending again, all of this depends on the severity of the blockage. So, the more extreme, the more severe that that blockage is, the more difficult it’s actually going to be to open up and potentially the more time it’s going to take.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

So, you do have to evaluate if that makes sense for you in your specific situation and what course of action is going to be the best to move forward with based on your family planning. So, before I jump into some of the natural treatments, I do want to remind you all that if you’ve had an STD, you do need to get that treated. That has to happen first and foremost because that will be the best way to address this and hopefully prevent any blockages in the flow fallopian tubes. One of the bigger reasons why we might have blocked fallopian tubes, as I mentioned in last week’s video again, you can check that out if you haven’t already is mucus or mucus blocking the fallopian tubes. And one of the number one causes of that is going to be candida.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

So, if you have candida or you suspect that you do, then the treatment for that has to be at the top of your list in terms of steps moving forward, so that you can prevent the buildup of candida and hopefully reduce the amount of mucus that might be getting in the way in the fallopian tubes. Now last week, I did talk about a lot of different reasons that might lead to an ectopic pregnancy, which could cause you to lose a fallopian tube or could cause a fallopian tube to be blocked. Hormone usage was one of those and smoking was another. So, at the top of the list, if you’re a smoker, you’ve got to stop, right? That is a natural treatment. You’ve got to stop smoking nicotine and tobacco because that can be an issue for your overall health and certainly your reproductive health and the functioning of your fallopian tubes. If you’ve had previous use of hormones, progesterone specifically or medication to help you ovulate, those things can also impact the function of the fallopian tube and my recommendation for that and the use of nicotine and tobacco is detoxification.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

So, we want to make sure that you detox, we get rid of those substances and we allow your body to detoxify from those chemicals and kind of reset. So, that has to be part of your overall plan when you are talking about restoring overall health to your fallopian tubes. Okay. So, since all of you always asked for supplements, last week I talked about four key supplements that you should be taking if you want to improve the function of your fallopian tubes and prevent an ectopic pregnancy. If you didn’t check out last week’s video, that is motivation enough to head on over there and watch that video to learn what I mentioned there. I am going to talk about some different things today that I didn’t include in that video to help you as well. And one of my key supplements that I’m going to add in, so last week I gave you four, I’m adding actually a fifth to this. This supplement is really great at preventing scarring or helping to break up scar tissue and that’s gotacola.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

So, gotacola you can find at the health food store or online and this is something that you can start to incorporate into your supplement regimen to help get of any scar tissue buildup or prevent scar tissue if you feel like there would be a reason for that in your specific situation. So, if you have endometriosis or if you’ve had some surgery, this would be something that would be good to incorporate into your protocol to help prevent scarring. Now what else could you do as part of your lifestyle habits? Well if you’ve heard me talk in any of my videos in the past about home therapies, then you might have a little hint about what I’m going to mention, but at the top of my list is going to be uterine or abdominal massage. Some of you might know it as Myoabdominal massage.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

Some of you might know it as physical therapy, but basically massaging the uterus, massaging the pelvic area to help increase circulation, break up any blockages, helps to break up the scar tissue as well. So, uterine massage is great. It all is always easier if someone else is performing it on you, but you can do it yourself as well and start to work on massaging. So, some simple ways to do it is just working in a circular motion or just pushing down all the way through from the pelvic area, right? Just pushing down from the naval down to the pubic bone from different angles and doing it as hard as much pressure as you can take. So, that is a good way to start to incorporate. But again, I do recommend that you seek out a professional to help you do that, so you can relax in the treatment while they are doing that. As part of the uterine massage or incorporating uterine massage, I always love to do castrol packs. So, doing this three, maybe more times a week on your lower abdomen, right over the uterus, helps to break up blockages and obstructions.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

I do have other videos where I go into more detail on that topic that you can check out as well, but incorporating castrol packs into that. And then you can actually massage afterwards because you can use the oil it’s already on your abdomen. You can use the oil to help massage as well. And the last home therapy technique that I love is vaginal steaming. That’s right, you heard that correct is using vaginal steam. There are many herbs that can help to penetrate into the pelvic cavity, into the uterine cavity, and help to start to break up obstructions as well. So, you would want to really incorporate all of these things together. Now if you are actively trying to conceive, which by the way if you do have some blockages and you are going to focus on treating these blockages to open them up, I recommend you take a little break from trying to conceive. But if you are actively trying to conceive, then you do need to think about that when you’re incorporating these home therapies, you can’t just do them all cycle long.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

You will want to only do that in the first half, like basically when you’re done bleeding up until you start trying. So, for the most part you’re going to have about a week of time to really do that. That’s going to make it much harder for you to use these therapies to actually have an impact on the blockages of the fallopian tube. So, my recommendation is you take a break from trying and actually give that a little bit of time and focus time to do what it needs to do.

Dr. Mark Sklar:

All right. Hopefully this video was valuable to you. Hopefully you found some useful information. If you did, I’d love to hear from you. So, comment below and let me know. What did you learn in this video? What was impactful for you? And I want to hear from all of you, do you know if you have a blocked fallopian tube? Have you had an HSG done? Comment below and let me know, I want to hear from all of you. By the way, just a reminder that my Hope Fertility Coaching Program is open for enrollment. So, if you want to find out if you’re a good fit for that program, then I want to invite you to apply. All you have to do is use the link in the description below. All right everyone, it was wonderful to be here with you. If you like this video, give me a thumbs up. If you’re not already a subscriber to my YouTube channel, you need to be, so hit that bell to subscribe and get notified when I put out a new video for all of you. And until the next video, stay fertile.