Ectopic pregnancy is pregnancy, which occurs anywhere outside the uterine cavity. It may either occur in the Fallopian tube (it happens in about 85% of all ectopic pregnancies), in one of the ovaries or in the cervix, though less often. And the rarest location of an ectopic pregnancy is the abdominal cavity. As a rule the fetus dies in case of ectopic pregnancy. However, there are cases, when the fetus survives and develops completely in the abdominal cavity. The delivery is performed by cutting the abdomen (in this case the procedure, which is called laparotomy becomes necessary to be performed). However, this kind of pregnancy is truly considered to be one of the life threatening conditions. This kind of complication is quite a well – known, though, it is relatively rare one.
What is the incidence of ectopic pregnancy?
The woman, who is going to become a gestational surrogate mother, and who will be fertilized with the help of IVF procedure, has about 10% risk of ectopic pregnancy. It should be noted, that in case for natural conception, ectopic pregnancy occurs in one in100 to 300 cases.
Moreover, there is a possibility of having the heterotopic pregnancy - it is a combination of normal pregnancy with ectopic one. The risk of heterotopic pregnancy in the result of In Vitro Fertilization procedure is less than 1% of all pregnancies compared with two in 30,000 after natural conception.
What are the possible causes of ectopic pregnancy?
One of the most common causes of ectopic pregnancy is considered to be narrowed or distorted Fallopian tubes. This condition may occur either in the result of some previous pelvic infections or operations, or it can be the result of a tubal surgery. In case if the surrogate mother experienced ectopic pregnancy previously, it may be repeated. Adhesion or endometriosis may also be referred to other possible causes of ectopic pregnancy. in addition, some congenital abnormality of the Fallopian tube may possibly cause ectopic pregnancy to occur.
The IVF procedure as the embryo transfer technique may also contribute to the chance of the ectopic pregnancy occurring, as the embryo is forced into the tube in the result of inserting it high into the cavity, injecting too much volume of the culture medium or injecting the embryos at high pressure.
Can ectopic pregnancy be prevented?
Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent ectopic pregnancy. However, sometimes complete tubal occlusion is applied in order to try to reduce the risk of ectopic pregnancy, but it does not prevent an interstitial pregnancy (a kind of ectopic pregnancy, which gets implanted into the inner part of the Fallopian tube, which is situated within the muscle of the uterus).
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