Ectopic Pregnancy and its Effect on Future Fertility

Abstract

Abstract A hospital based study on ectopic pregnancy was carried out at B and B Hospital, Gwarkhu, Kathmandu over a period of 8 years. During this period 88 patients came for the treatment of ectopic pregnancy. Their background information was recorded and almost all of them were managed surgically. The incidence of ectopic pregnancy is found to be 1.8% of all women admitted in the hospital with pregnancy related conditions. Sixty-six (77%) of them were of less than 30 years age. They presented with wide spectrum of symptoms and signs ranging from amenorrhea, abdominal pain and abnormal vaginal bleeding. Almost all (97.76%) of them had tubal pregnancy with 92% presenting in an acute stage with ruptured gestational sac. Two of these women lost their life due to this pathology. Out of the remaining 86 women, 71(82.55%) expressed the desire to try for another pregnancy in future. Few (5.84%) of them were true defaulters and could not be followed up. A follow-up study was done therefore on remaining 66(76.74%) patients who desired to be pregnant again after this ectopic pregnancy. The main objective of the study was to assess the future fertility of these 66 patients. Eighteen percent of them remained infertile and 82% (54) of them became pregnant. Twelve (18%) of them had repeat ectopic pregnancy, whereas 42 (63.63%) of them had intrauterine pregnancy. Out of 42 intrauterine pregnancies, only 39(59.09%) were able to continue the pregnancy till term and three pregnancies (4.54%) ended-up with spontaneous miscarriage.