Question:
My cousin is 15 years old. Recently, she was diagnosed with mumps after experiencing redness, swelling, and pain in her left cheek. A week later, she developed abdominal pain, and after an ultrasound, the doctor said she has concurrent ovarian inflammation. Now she has recovered, but her parents are very worried because they heard that boys who suffer from mumps may lose their fertility, and they are concerned that their daughter may also lose her fertility. When I asked the doctor, he said it’s hard to say. Does this illness really affect my cousin’s future fertility?
Answer:
The mumps virus tends to invade mature reproductive glands, so mumps patients after puberty often have complications like orchitis or oophoritis. Orchitis occurs in 14%-35% of adult male patients, while oophoritis occurs in 5%-7% of female patients.
Fortunately, the mumps virus usually only invades one side of the testicles or ovaries, leaving the other side intact. Furthermore, inflammation does not necessarily affect fertility; it depends on the severity of the inflammation. Generally, male orchitis is more severe, and some individuals may experience testicular atrophy after recovery, which can impact fertility. In contrast, female ovarian inflammation is relatively mild, mainly presenting as lower back pain or menstrual irregularities, and it’s rare for it to affect pregnancy after recovery.
As conception is a very delicate and complex process, it is unrealistic to say there is absolutely an impact or no impact at all; we can only look at the general situation. In your cousin’s case, since treatment was timely, it is likely that there won’t be significant effects.
