One in 14 people nationally will have appendicitis at some point in their life. It most commonly occurs in young people age 10 to 30.

Ruptured appendixes and bad pelvic infections after appendectomies are known to increase the risk of infertility. Some reports have also suggested the appendectomy itself might hurt a woman's fertility, presumably because it could leave scar tissue sticking to the fallopian tubes, snagging the egg on its way to the uterus.

"A lot of patients thought they would become infertile after appendicectomy (appendectomy)," said Dr. Sami Shimi, a surgeon at the University of Dundee in Scotland, who worked on the new study. "But when I looked at the reports supporting this, they were really weak."

He and his colleagues decided to do a bigger study, using a limited patient database. They were taken aback by the results.

"I was completely surprised that patients who had had an appendicectomy or appendicitis were more fertile, they had more subsequent pregnancies," Shimi told Reuters Health. "And I thought, OK, I have done something wrong here."