According to a recent study revealed in this New York Times article, women should be reassured that treatments for ectopic pregnancy will not affect their ability to become pregnant in the future.
Each of the three main treatments for ectopic pregnancy — a condition in which a fetus develops outside the uterus, often in the fallopian tube — appears to be equally effective in preserving a women’s ability to become pregnant in the future, a new study found.
Ectopic pregnancies can be ended by administration of a drug, methotrexate; conservative surgery that preserves the fallopian tube; or radical surgery that removes it. Methotrexate may be used alone or combined with surgery.
The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, included 406 women with ectopic pregnancies, of whom 298 subsequently tried to become pregnant. In one part of the study, appropriate cases were randomly assigned to receive either conservative surgery and methotrexate or methotrexate alone. In another, women who required surgery were assigned to either conservative or radical surgery.
Within two years, 67 percent of the women who had the drug alone became pregnant again, compared with 71 percent of those who had the medicine and conservative surgery. In the other group, pregnancy rates were 70 percent after conservative surgery with methotrexate, compared with 64 percent after radical surgery. None of these differences was statistically significant.
“The message is that women should be reassured that removing the fallopian tube does not affect future fertility,” said an author of the study, Dr. Perrine Capmas, an obstetrician at Bicêtre Hospital in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, near Paris. “It’s important to take into account other factors — the woman’s preference, for example — because fertility will be the same whatever treatment is used.”
Louise Habash is a maternal-fetal specialist in Houston, Texas. More questions about your pregnancy can be answered by visiting this Facebook page.
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