Ectopic Pregnancy

Ectopic pregnancy is a medical condition where the fertilised egg gets implanted to a place that is present outside the woman’s womb. Ectopic pregnancy occurring in fallopian tubes is termed as tubular pregnancy. This constitutes ninety-five percent of the ectopic pregnancies.

Ectopic pregnancies should be treated immediately. The non-treatment of ectopic pregnancies can result in the rupture of the fallopian tubes, resulting to life threatening internal bleeding of the abdomen.

Symptoms

A woman who has ectopic pregnancy will experience the same symptoms as that of normal pregnancy in the initial stages. They are:

• Missed periods
• Tenderness of the breast
• Nausea
  And
• Tiredness.

The symptoms of ectopic pregnancy become visible between the fourth and tenth weeks of pregnancy. In this case, the woman has a regular period normally two weeks after she missed her periods.

The symptoms of ectopic pregnancy are:

• Severe and persistent pain may be experienced on abdomen’s one side.
• Vaginal bleeding with colour of the blood similar to that of prune juice is present
• A pain on the tip of the shoulders, where the arms start, indicating the presence of internal bleeding is present.
• The women may experience pain while urinating or passing faeces.
• If the fallopian tubes ruptures and results in internal bleeding, the condition called collapse is experienced. The person will have an increased rate of heart beat, feel sick, look pale as well as have diarrhoea.

The rupturing of fallopian tubes requires surgery to de done immediately.

Causes

In normal cases, the fertilised egg is pushed into the womb via the fallopian tubes with the help of celia. But if the celia falis to perform its function properly, the pregnancy will develop in the fallopian tube.

The likely causes of ectopic pregnancy are:

• Pelvic abdominal disease which causes the inflammation of the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the womb due to infection.
• Any surgery that has been performed previously on the abdomen like fibroid removal
• Smoking
• The fallopian tube is naturally bent or abnormal
• If the women had been using mini pill or progesterone-releasing intrauterine contraceptive device for contraceptive purposes.
• if a women has undergone a surgical sterilisation that reverts.
• In certain cases of test tube pregnancies, the fertilised egg has more attachment to the tissue outside the womb than the womb.

Treatment for ectopic pregnancies

The following method can be adopted.

Surgery can be used where there is a damage of the fallopian tubes.
In the early stages, ectopic pregnancy can be treated using the administration of the drug called methotrexate which acts by the destruction of the ectopic pregnancy cells.
If the symptoms related to ectopic pregnancy are not present or are very mild, the woman will be asked to be patient as the ectopic pregnancies may die by themselves.
Emergency surgery is done where the fallopian tubes rupture thereby causing severe internal bleeding of the abdomen.

Complications

Internal bleeding that occurs in the abdomen due to the rupturing of fallopian tubes can be life threatening.

If ectopic pregnancy is not treated, damage of the fallopian tubes happen.