Ectopic pregnancy - my story.

 Whilst there is a lot of information and advice on Minti about ectopic pregnancies, I wanted to share my story and highlight how easy it can be to miss that the pregnancy is ectopic.

What is an ectopic pregnancy?

An ectopic pregnancy is where the fertilised egg has implanted outside the uterus. In more than 95% of ectopic pregnancies the egg attaches itself to the fallopian tubes.

My story

I have recently had two miscarriages and found out I was pregnant again. Around one week later I had all the signs of miscarrying again, I started spotting, had a loss in pregnancy symptoms and I just didn’t 'feel' pregnant any more. I managed to get an emergency appointment with my OBGYN and he conducted a transvaginal scan and saw no sign of a pregnancy. That night I had severe cramping in my stomach and started bleeding heavy, I naturally assumed this was a miscarriage as the symptoms were exactly the same as the other two. I had two blood tests, two days apart to check the HCG hormone which would give some indication of how the pregnancy was progressing and how far along I was. Unfortunately, the lab carried out the wrong test for the first one so I never received any results, nor could I get another appointment with my OBGYN. I bled for around a week and that stopped this Tuesday.

On Thursday I had what could only be compared to labor pains in my lower abdomen. I managed to control some of the pain with Ibuprofen and continued through the day. When I woke the next day the pain was there and my body was telling me something was not right. I went to the ER and they did more blood tests and found the HCG level had increased, although a transvaginal scan showed no sign of a pregnancy, just abnormal ovaries. My OBGYN was called to the room and after a couple of internal examinations he thought he needed to rule out the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy by performing a laparoscopy. I did have an ectopic pregnancy and the OBGYN was able to save my fallopian tube. However, there is no guarantee that all of the fetal tissue has been removed, my OBGYN is carrying out further blood tests to ensure the HCG level goes back to zero.   

What is a laparoscopy?

A laparoscopy is a procedure carried out under general anesthetic.  An incision is made into the navel and carbon dioxide gas is inserted into the are to move the abdominal wall and any organs out of the way thereby creating a larger space for the surgeon to work in. A tiny video camera goes through the navel tube as the first level of diagnosis. If necessary, further instruments are inserted through additional incisions in the abdomen.  

Lessons learned..

The one thing out of all of this that has scared me the most is how easy I could have missed it. I was attributing the pain to the 'miscarriage' and if it wasn't for me listening to my body (and instincts) knowing that something just didn't 'feel' right I could have left it for a couple more weeks. An ectopic pregnancy can be fatal, especially if it ruptures. I am so thankful that mine was detected early and has been treated. I am hoping this will help someone else out and if anything, make sure you never think twice about getting something like this checked out, better to be safe than sorry!