Public release date: 17-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] <\/p>\n
Contact: Emma Mason wordmason@mac.com<\/a> European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology<\/p>\n Women whose first pregnancy is ectopic are likely to have fewer children in the following 20-30 years than women whose first pregnancy ends in a delivery, miscarriage or abortion, according to results from a study of nearly 3,000 women in Denmark. In addition, these women have a five-fold increased risk of a subsequent ectopic pregnancy. <\/p>\n The first study to look at long-term reproductive outcomes in women whose first pregnancy was ectopic is published online today (Thursday) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1]. <\/p>\n Ectopic pregnancies are pregnancies where a fertilised egg implants somewhere other than the lining of the womb; often it's in one of the Fallopian tubes. Approximately one per cent of pregnancies are ectopic, and they are never viable; often the eggs die, sometimes a drug called methotrexate is given so that the pregnancy tissue is absorbed into the woman's body, and sometimes surgery is needed. <\/p>\n Although it is already known that a previous ectopic pregnancy can increase the risk of a subsequent one, most studies have been small and with short follow-up. \"We found no controlled study assessing long-term reproductive prognosis in women whose first pregnancy is ectopic,\" write the authors of the current study. <\/p>\n The researchers collected data from four Danish registries covering the period 1977-2009. They found 2,917 women whose first pregnancy was ectopic between 1977-1982 and who, except for those who died or emigrated, were followed to the end of 2009 or for an average of 23 years. <\/p>\n These women were matched with other women of the same age whose first pregnancy resulted in a delivery, miscarriage or abortion. They were also compared with a fourth group of women who had no recorded pregnancy in the year of matching. <\/p>\n Dr Line Lund Krhus (MD), a research student in the Gynaecological Clinic at the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, said: \"We found that the group of women who had a first ectopic pregnancy had the lowest delivery rate and total number of pregnancies over the following 20-30 years when compared with the other groups, and also lower rates of miscarriages and abortions. They had a 4.7-10-fold increased risk of further ectopic pregnancies.\" <\/p>\n Women who had had an ectopic pregnancy had the lowest long-term rate of subsequent deliveries of 69 per 100 women, compared with 126 per 100 among women who had a first miscarriage, 77 per 100 among women who had a first abortion, 73 per 100 among women whose first pregnancy ended in a delivery, and 101 per 100 among the women who were not pregnant in the year the women were matched with each other. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Original post: Public release date: 17-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Emma Mason wordmason@mac.com<\/a> European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology Women whose first pregnancy is ectopic are likely to have fewer children in the following 20-30 years than women whose first pregnancy ends in a delivery, miscarriage or abortion, according to results from a study of nearly 3,000 women in Denmark. In addition, these women have a five-fold increased risk of a subsequent ectopic pregnancy Continue reading
\nWomen whose first pregnancy was ectopic have fewer children<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"