Medical Health Encyclopedia

Ectopic pregnancy

The administration of hormones, specifically estrogen and progesterone, can slow the normal movement of the fertilized egg through the tubal epithelium and result in implantation in the tube. Women who become pregnant despite using progesterone-only oral contraceptives have a 5-fold increase in the ectopic pregnancy rate.

Women who become pregnant despite using progesterone-bearing IUDs also have an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy rates for those who become pregnant despite non-medicated IUD are 5%, while the rate for medicated IUD users who become pregnant despite the device is 15%. Note that these rates only refer to percents of the tiny proportion of women who become pregnant while using these methods -- they do not refer to women who have once used these methods and later become pregnant, or to the percent of women who become pregnant while using these methods.

The "morning after pill" is associated with a 10-fold increase in risk of this condition when its use fails to prevent pregnancy.

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Ectopic pregnancies occur from 1 in every 40 to 1 in every 100 pregnancies. This rate increased four-fold between 1970 and 1992.

Increased risk is associated with women who have a history of salpingitis or PID, tubal surgery of any type (including tubal ligation and its reversal), or prior ectopic pregnancy.

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