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Home › Articles › Conditions Affecting Conception and Pregnancy › Ectopic Pregnancy

Ectopic Pregnancy

The Facts on Ectopic Pregnancy

By Michele St. Martin

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

The Treatment
Once the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy is made, there is no choice but to end the pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is life threatening; while only 2 percent of pregnancies are ectopic, 9 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are caused by ectopic pregnancy.

An ectopic pregnancy is usually ended surgically, though if there are few symptoms and the pregnancy is not immediately life-threatening, the pregnancy may be ended via administration (usually a single shot) of a drug called methotrexate.

The Prognosis
Heather Mann* had not one, or even two, but three ectopic pregnancies. According to Dr. Barrere, 10 to 15 percent of those who have one ectopic pregnancy go on to have another. In fact, having had one ectopic pregnancy makes it more likely that a woman will have another. Between 70 to 85 percent of women who have had an ectopic pregnancy go on to have a normal uterine pregnancy.

 After her second ectopic pregnancy, Mann's doctor recommended that if she had another ectopic pregnancy, she should have her fallopian tubes either tied or removed. Nine months after her second ectopic pregnancy, Heather became pregnant again. Initially everything seemed normal – until her first ultrasound revealed that the pregnancy was once again a tubal one.

"Needless to say, I was devastated," Mann says. She agreed to have her tubes removed, but she hasn't given up on having babies – she is now attempting to become pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF). A pregnancy through IVF doesn't require fallopian tubes (embryos are transferred directly into the woman's uterus).

Unlike Mann, whose doctors diagnosed her first pregnancy as ectopc very quickly, Siobhan Cowell's ectopic pregnancy was misdiagnosed three times. It was only when she went to an emergency room in excruciating pain that Cowell was finally diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy. She lost her right fallopian tube and six pints of blood in emergency surgery.


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Ectopic Pregnancy by Anonymous on 12/02/2009 05:30AM

i was 7 weeks pregent i had etitopic pregan i was saced i would klikre another one but isaced i might hapen again

Re: Out of Place by anonymous on 01/02/2009 04:12PM

Hi there. I had an ectopic at 5 weeks and didn't find out until I had pain at 7 weeks. I had the baby removed and went on to get pregnant again but I had a miscarriage at 12 weeks. I lost a twin and gave birth to a healthy boy called Robert.

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