Tubal Pregnancy

A pregnancy is a reason of happiness for most women in this world, but sometimes this condition can be associated with a lot of complications. Tubal pregnancy is one of them. First of all you have to know what tubal pregnancy is. It appears when a fertilized ovule is implanted outside the uterus, in general in one of the tubes in the area. This happens when these tubes are blocked, affected or simply they are not able to send the ovule to the uterus. On average there are necessary approximate 4 – 5 days for the fertilized ovule to get from the ovaries into the uterus, once the conception took place. Sometimes it can be implanted in other parts of the abdomen as well, in ovaries or in cervix.

Which are the risks?

It is estimated that 1 from 50 pregnancies is tubal. Unfortunately, doctors can’t transplant a tubal pregnancy to the uterus; therefore the unique solution is to interrupt it. If a tubal pregnancy is not discovered and treated in time, the embryo will continue to develop, which will lead to tube breaking, severe abdominal pain, bleeding and rarely, even death. You are more exposed to tubal pregnancy if you have suffered from affections which have led to the tubes lesions or if you follow a fertility treatment. Even if they are usually discovered in the 6 – 7 th months, tubal pregnancies can be detected even since the 4th month.

Which are the symptoms?

Symptoms vary a lot according to the person. However we can mention:

• Abdominal or cervical pains (they may not be so severe, intermittent, or on the contrary, more severe, persistent, unexpected)
• Vaginal bleeding (massive bleeding in the abdomen as a result of tubes breaking)
• Shoulders pain (even if cramps and bleeding can signify more things, shoulders pain, especially while you are lying, represents a feature of the tubal pregnancy)
• Pain which intensifies during physical activity or when you are coughing.

Treatment

Treatment depends on the accuracy with which the diagnostic was established, on the embryo size, as well as on techniques which are available. Earlier you end a tubal pregnancy, more the risk of the tubes being affected decreases and implicitly the chances to keep a new pregnancy till the end increase. Even if you risk losing a tube because of a tubal pregnancy, as long as the other one is all right, you can have a normal new pregnancy. If both tubes are affected and you can’t become pregnant any more, there is the possibility of fertilizing in vitro (healthy embryos are implanted artificially directly in the uterus). The chances of a second tubal pregnancy are about 10%, and they vary according to the cause and the treatment of the first pregnancy.

If it is not discovered in time, the evolution of a tubal pregnancy will finally lead to severe internal hemorrhages and any intern deterioration can lead to infertility.

There are no means to prevent a tubal pregnancy, but there are possibilities to be diagnosed. And it is diagnosed relatively at the beginning of the pregnancy the complications won’t be that severe.