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Ectopic Pregnancy & Early Pregnancy

Ectopic Pregnancy

An ectopic pregnancy is when a pregnancy is lodged in the fallopian tube, not in the uterus.  The risk of an ectopic pregnancy is 1:200.  Most of these ectopic pregnancies will resolve naturally, but some can continue to grow and if left untreated can become life threatening and of very grave concern to both the doctor and the patient.

You may have heard to the term “ruptured ectopic pregnancy”.  This is when the pregnancy “bursts” through the tube and bleeding occurs.  This can be a very sudden event.  You may have symptoms like pain, or some vaginal bleeding, or you may have no symptoms at all other than feeling faint and dizzy.

A ruptured ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency.  You would be taken to hospital  where in theatre the doctor would remove the fallopian tube either partially or completely.

As was stated earlier, most ectopic pregnancies resolve themselves naturally.  The pregnancy just stops growing and heals over.  We can tell that has occurred by testing a small sample of your blood for the pregnancy hormone (Beta HCG which is a pregnancy related hormone) and checking to see whether the levels of this hormone in your body are rising (indicating the pregnancy is still growing) or falling (indicating the pregnancy has stopped growing).  We usually need to obtain 2 blood samples over a period of 48 hours.

If the hormone level in your blood is rising and if we cannot see a pregnancy in your uterus, using very careful ultra sound (like a “sound x ray” which shows a picture of your uterus, then we may need to admit you to a hospital for closer observation.  This is the safest thing to do.  When you get to hospital they may decide just to observe you for a few days, to treat your ectopic pregnancy with a special chemical to stop it growing, or they may have to operate in order to safely care for you.  Your stay in hospital shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 days.

Early Pregnancy

In some of our patients who are very early in their pregnancy, we cannot see the pregnancy tissue – it’s simply too small to be seen. We will in those cases, send the tissue off to pathology to have it confirmed that it is, or isn’t pregnancy tissue.  While these tests are being done, we have to assume that you may have an ectopic pregnancy, because the risk is too great to do otherwise.  If this is the case, you must ring the clinic to check on your results 24 hours later.