Effects of postcesarean section febrile morbidity on subsequent fertility.
The records of 1319 patients undergoing cesarean section were evaluated to determine the relationship between postoperative febrile morbidity and fertility during the five years after the operation. Infection was significantly more common among patients undergoing primary as compared with repeat cesarean section and was three times more frequent among patients with membranes ruptured for 12 hours or more compared with those with membranes ruptured less than 12 hours. After correction of the data for voluntary infertility, neither postcesarean section endometritis nor pelvic cellulitis had a demonstrable effect on the rate of pregnancy during the five years after cesarean delivery, but pelvic abscess was associated with an apparent reduction in fertility as reflected by the frequency of pregnancy among these individuals, which was approximately half the rate observed in other infected and noninfected individuals in this study.