Is it possible to get pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy: chances and recommendations

March 10, 2019
Pregnancy
Bondar Fedor

An ectopic pregnancy, as well as the result of an operation to remove the affected tube, is usually quite difficult to tolerate. However, medicine is constantly developing, and a woman, even after a previously experienced pathology, may after some time think about bearing a healthy child.

In this case, a very specific question arises: how to effectively and correctly plan the next conception, so that in the future the ectopic pregnancy does not recur, and the woman herself does not completely lose the second fallopian tube, completely losing the chance of subsequent birth of children.

Features of pregnancy planning

How long after an ectopic can you get pregnant? After the expiration of 6 months it is advisable. This is what doctors recommend. If a woman recently had an ectopic pregnancy, and if an operation was recently performed, subsequent conception will most likely occur after a certain time, sometimes taking more than one year. At a minimum, you need to wait 6 months.

The chances of a healthy pregnancy increase significantly with stable ovulation in a woman, since after an ectopic operation both ovaries can ovulate, but the possibility of fertilization will occur again only 4-6 times a year.

But there are also completely opposite situations when a woman can conceive six months to a year after surgery - here everything will depend on the health and immunity of the patient, the patency of the tube that survived the operation, as well as the level of preparedness of her body for future gestation.

But even if pregnancy does not occur, there is no need to grieve over this - a young couple needs to approach the issue of planning subsequent conception more carefully and seriously.

Video about the consequences of ectopic pregnancy

In the video, an experienced gynecologist talks about the likely consequences of this condition, the possibility of relapse, as well as the possibility of a second pregnancy. The information is presented without unnecessary emotions, from the point of view of a health worker.

Even if in your life there have been cases where an egg is not implanted in the uterus, this is not a reason to give up and give up on the desire to have children. Perhaps your story will help women who are in the same situation. How did you find out about the occurrence of an ectopic pregnancy? What consequences have you experienced? How did you recover and did you decide to conceive again?

Oral drugs

The main recommendation for a woman who has recently experienced an ectopic pregnancy and surgery would be to protect herself from possible pregnancy for six months. Most often, gynecologists prescribe birth control pills to patients - mainly combined oral contraceptives. It is worth knowing whether it is possible to become pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy if you take such medications? The answer is definitely yes.

In addition, the hormonal background, previously disturbed by pregnancy outside the uterine cavity, is equalized, as a result of which the bearing of the child will be calmer and more successful. Low-dose contraception will not cause any harm to a woman’s body; when using it, there is no need to fulfill any special conditions or take breaks.

Finding out the causes of ectopic pregnancy

One of the most important conditions for preventing the recurrence of an ectopic pregnancy. To identify the main problem that led to this pathological condition, you need to contact a highly qualified specialist. During the medical examination, after a series of tests, it will be possible to determine or exclude the presence of acute or chronic infectious and inflammatory diseases or adhesions in the pelvic organs, hormonal disorders, the growth of foci of endometriosis outside the uterine cavity, tumors of the ovaries and uterus, congenital abnormalities of the uterine structure pipes In addition, the cause of an ectopic pregnancy can be an intrauterine device or repeated curettage of the uterine cavity. It may also be necessary to examine your partner for sexually transmitted diseases.

Ethinyl estradiol

After a pathological pregnancy, the gynecologist prescribes various medications to the woman, but many people mistakenly believe that they should be chosen taking into account the hormonal background. So, initially the doctor recommends combined oral contraception containing a small dose of ethinyl estradiol - the drugs Novinet, Lindinet, Logest, Janine or Yarina. Taking medications begins after the onset of menstruation, which follows the operation, since sexual relations are not recommended before this.

Should know

Wanting to get pregnant soon, a woman must complete a number of processes:

cure existing infections;
if there are adhesions, they need to be eliminated using a laser;
perform an ultrasound of the uterine tubes and determine their condition;
normalize hormonal levels if necessary;
undergo sanatorium or resort treatment.

Both parents should undergo a full examination at once in order to understand the likelihood of pregnancy after an ectopic pregnancy, and to promptly identify all kinds of hidden infections, since they can be transmitted through sexual contact. And it doesn’t matter that one of the couple feels confident that this will not happen again.

It is known that some hidden infections may not reveal themselves until a certain moment, developing for years in the body, causing chronic inflammation of the uterine tubes, as well as the formation of adhesions. Unless a woman may have problems with the onset of a subsequent pregnancy.

It is the resulting adhesions that can impede the movement of the egg with the fetus through the tube - they will retain the egg in the tube, leading to a subsequent pathological ectopic pregnancy.

If problems occur in a healthy tube, pregnancy outside the uterus may occur again, which may result in the remaining tube having to be removed and preventing you from becoming pregnant naturally again.

Tactics after an ectopic pregnancy

The first step after eliminating the consequences of an unsuccessful attempt to get pregnant should be a visit to the doctor and a blood test for all kinds of infections. The presence of an inflammatory process over a long period often leads to the occurrence of adhesions. This is one of the factors for relapse . Treatment of adhesions occurs with the help of laser therapy.

An ultrasound examination is a necessary measure before becoming pregnant. It is important to exclude the possibility of neoplasms, cysts and other pathological phenomena. The formation of tumors can occur at almost any age, and accordingly, this possibility should not be discarded without checking.

Examination by an endocrinologist and checking for hormonal imbalance or imbalance. If a gynecological device is used as a method of contraception, it should be removed immediately. The longer it remains in a woman, the more likely the chance of attachment of a fertilized egg outside the uterus, in another place.

Previous abortions can also cause a similar pathological condition. You may want to think twice about this step if you plan to have children in the future, as it could cause serious complications when trying to get pregnant.

Rest, good nutrition and moderate physical activity will be a huge plus on the road to recovery. The more attention a woman pays to a healthy lifestyle, the more likely it is to have a child in the future.

Treatment after an ectopic pregnancy takes quite a long time. Therefore, it is advisable to protect yourself for at least a year after the tragedy. The possibility of conception can only be confirmed by a doctor after an appropriate examination.

The optimal time for conception is considered to be one to two years after the failure. However, even under the best circumstances, the threat of miscarriage cannot be ruled out.

Necessary examinations

To know whether it is possible to become pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy, a woman must undergo a test of her patency - hysterosalpingography. During the procedure, surgeons insert a catheter with a cannula into the cervix, and a special water-based solution is passed through it, which fills the uterine cavity and its tubes. Next, you need to take several x-rays.

With normal patency, the solution will flow into the peritoneal cavity, filling the surviving tube. If there is obstruction of the pipe, the aqueous solution will stop near the formed adhesion. If the tube is healthy, a woman can try to become pregnant, but if pathology is detected, she needs to perform laparoscopy - surgical dissection of the tubal adhesions.

But the uterine tubes will not always be checked for their patency, since the condition of a healthy uterine tube is assessed by the surgeon directly during the operation. If it is unsatisfactory, it is worth immediately performing laparoscopy, the purpose of which is to completely restore the patency of the surviving tube.

Ovulation tracking

Is it possible to get pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy? This is a question that concerns patients who have experienced this problem. According to doctors, a woman can easily carry a child after a pregnancy that develops outside the uterus. It is believed that in women who do not suffer from diseases of the reproductive system, ovulation occurs alternately in different ovaries. However, only one of them is always in the lead.

It’s good when the leader is the ovary, located on the side of the surviving tube. In this situation, fertilization occurs much faster. A woman should be able to determine her own ovulation, as this will significantly increase the possibility of a healthy pregnancy after an ectopic one.

To track ovulation and find out whether it is possible to get pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy, the following methods are used:

Use of special ovulation test systems. But it is worth considering that this is a rather expensive method, since such systems are not cheap, and during the cycle you will need to use about 6 tests.
The most budget-friendly option would be the process of determining basal temperature, since it does not require financial costs. This is not a very reliable way to track ovulation and has been experienced by many women.
Folliculometry is a very informative ultrasound monitoring of the development of follicles, determining the thickness of the endometrium of the uterus in a specific phase of menstruation, as well as tracking the transition of the follicle to the corpus luteum. It is worth noting that this is the most accurate method for determining the onset of ovulation, which allows you to track dynamic changes in the ovaries and, in fact, the uterus.
Own sensations: during ovulation, aching painful sensations may appear in the lower abdomen or to the side of the maturing egg. A woman may also experience discharge that is odorless and whose structure resembles egg white.

If ovulation is correctly determined, a woman can be fertilized, even if she previously had an ectopic pregnancy. During this period, the young couple needs to maintain an active sex life with raising the pelvis after sexual contact so that sperm penetrates better into the vagina.

Ectopic pregnancy with tube removal

In the early stages, it is difficult to detect an ectopic pregnancy. More often it is determined in the later stages, when drug treatment can no longer be used.

Modern equipment allows you to perform the operation and save the fallopian tube. But sometimes, due to a number of reasons, it is impossible to save organs. In this case, the likelihood of infertility increases sharply.

Indications for tube removal:

If the tube is damaged (the fallopian tube has ruptured).
If bleeding is present.
If a woman does not want to have children in the future.

Is it possible to get pregnant without one tube?

Doctors believe that ovulation occurs in one or the other ovary. In fact, ovulation predominantly occurs in one of the appendages.

If this ovary is located on the side of the surviving tube, then conception will occur without problems. It is important that the patient is under 30 years old.

If the patient is unlucky, then you need to find out when ovulation occurs. This significantly increases the chance of successful conception. There are several ways to determine the onset of ovulation:

Testing. Requires large financial costs. Since the cost of the test is quite high and you need to buy about 5 packages. The test is similar to a pregnancy test. Conducted on the 8th day of the menstrual cycle. The day of ovulation is a favorable day for conception. The test is done 1-2 times a day. It is better to carry out the procedure at the same time.
Basal temperature measurements. Budget option. It is used both independently and as an addition to the main one. But doctors consider it uninformative. For example, using this method, ovulation is determined and an ultrasound is performed on the same day, which will show its presence.
Own feelings. Some women experience symptoms during ovulation. Some people have stomach pain in the area of the ovary, others experience discharge and an increase in libido.

There are some traditional ways to increase your chance of getting pregnant. These include:

After sexual intercourse, stand in the birch position, this way the sperm will reach the uterus faster.
You can't take a bath and get up suddenly.
The use of tinctures.

Most cannot get pregnant due to a psychological barrier. This is natural, because the chance of a second ectopic is extremely high. And after removal of the second tube, pregnancy is completely impossible. Only a psychologist will help you cross this barrier.

How to get pregnant without a fallopian tube, what is needed for this?

Pregnancy after an ectopic pregnancy is a responsible decision. Therefore, it is necessary to take it seriously. Doctors say pregnancy is possible. But you need to adhere to some rules.

It is very important to plan and prepare for your next pregnancy. In this situation, consult a doctor. After the examination, the doctor will determine whether pregnancy is possible and tell you how to plan it.

When one tube is removed, the chance of having a baby decreases. If you follow medical recommendations, the chance of pregnancy reaches 50%. But if both are removed, then natural fertilization is impossible.

But even in such a situation, there is no need to give up on yourself; in vitro fertilization (IVF) will help. For fertilization, therefore, specialists need ovaries that produce eggs and a healthy uterus. The probability of fertilization in this way is 60%.

IVF with removed tubes is carried out in a standard way. The patient must undergo examination. Next, a special course of hormones is prescribed that stimulate the production of eggs. After the course, eggs are collected and fertilized.

Impact of stress

An unsuccessful pregnancy, undoubtedly, is quite a strong stress for a woman’s body, as well as for her mental state: anxiety settles in her due to the fact that she will no longer be able to become a mother. As a result, the patient may develop psychological infertility.

It is difficult to overcome this barrier on your own, so it is important that the woman seeks help from a psychologist who will assure the client that it is possible to become pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy, even with one surviving fallopian tube.

How to plan and prepare for pregnancy after an ectopic

During pregnancy, a woman may encounter problems that are detrimental not only to her health, but also to the child. For every girl, an ectopic pregnancy will be a blow. Both the mental side of a woman’s health and the physical side receive this blow. After it, patients refuse to get pregnant due to psychological problems.

What if it doesn't work out?

You shouldn’t wonder whether it’s possible to get pregnant after an ectopic pregnancy? After all, everything is real, you just have to be patient and strong.

If the tube has sufficient patency and if ovulation occurs quite normally, and the ovulating egg is released regularly, but conception does not occur even after 1-3 years, doctors recommend resting and not focusing too much on the problem.

If a woman cannot conceive a child with one healthy fallopian tube, the patient may be diagnosed with infertility. In such a situation, the couple should be fully examined, especially for the normal functioning of their reproductive organs.

If a man's semen contains a small number of live sperm that can fertilize an egg, which is often the case these days, it is recommended to perform the ICSI procedure. It is a concentration of sperm that is artificially implanted into the uterus during active ovulation. Of course, this will significantly increase a woman’s chance of getting pregnant faster.

If there is a loss of patency of a healthy tube due to a certain pathological process and inflammation, or if more than one ectopic has previously occurred, due to which a woman has lost both tubes, the optimal solution would be artificial insemination, which is carried out in our time in reproductive centers.

It is noteworthy that this procedure is carried out completely free of charge for needy couples, it is included in the compulsory medical insurance policy, and is performed after careful preparation and a high-quality examination.

In this situation, the presence and indicators of tubal patency are not particularly important, since the eggs, after they are grown in the ovaries, are artificially fertilized with live sperm. After this, the embryos are implanted (implanted) into the uterus so that they can give birth to a child. The likelihood of pregnancy after an ectopic pregnancy is quite high.

Methods for diagnosing tubal patency

At the stage of planning a pregnancy after an ectopic pregnancy, the doctor will definitely send you for an additional examination, which will help find out how passable the fallopian tubes are (or the one remaining after the operation). This procedure is called GSG - hysterosalpingography.

However, it can only be done according to a doctor’s indications. It is an x-ray examination: a special solution (contrast agent) is injected through the cervical canal into the uterus and tubes, and then the doctor looks to see if there are any abnormalities.

This way you can exclude the presence of scars or adhesions, which significantly impair the patency and interfere with the movement of the fertilized egg.

If there are certain indications, you may be referred for diagnostic laparoscopy.

During this procedure, the necessary examination will be carried out, which will give an accurate assessment of the condition of the fallopian tubes.

Laparoscopic surgery can be used to separate or remove adhesions to improve patency.

If the same technique was used during the first removal, then the doctor who performed the operation on you can issue an extract that will indicate how the surgical intervention took place, how pathologically the tube was changed, what damage was on it, what condition the second one was in, whether there were any concomitant gynecological diseases, etc.