ENDOMETRIAL BIOPSY FINDINGS IN INFERTILITY - ANALYSIS OF 12,949 CASES

Objective - Endometrial biopsy has been an important way of assessing infertile couples for several years. In this review of a wide-ranging series of endometrial biopsies of infertile couples in the Turkish pop ulation it was our aim to find the distribution of results according t o the years 1956-1966, 1967-1980, 1981-1992. Setting - University hosp ital. Subjects - 12,949 endometrial biopsies, referred to our gynecolo gical pathology laboratory for infertility investigation between 1956 and 1999. Method - Patient report files from pathology laboratory data , analyzed retrospectively. The assessment of the biopsies is made by the same pathologist. Results - 78.8% of cases had primary infertility , 21.2% secondary. Most of them were in the age group 26-35 years (48. 8%). 37.58% of cases were found to show normal secretory endometrium, 20.95% proliferative endometrial changes, and 28.22% signs of luteal p hase defect (LPD). Other local endometrial factors were also encounter ed, but in 1.79% the sample was considered insufficient for diagnosis. Moreover, in nine cases, malignancy was diagnosed with the help of en dometrial biopsy. During the study period, cases of normal secretory e ndometrium and tuberculous endometritis were observed to decrease and LPD to increase significantly. It is worthy to note that in only 28 (0 .21%) cases had endometrial biopsies been performed during a pregnancy cycle. Conclusion - We conclude that endometrial biopsy not only show s the hormonal response of endometrium but gives additional informatio n about the local factors of endometrium concerning atrophy, specific and non-specific infections, and malignancy.