What is Ectopic pregnancy? It means that pregnancy is somewhere outside the uterus. Such a pregnancy could be inside a fallopian tube or ovary or very rarely in the abdominal cavity outside the uterus. Most common is the tubal pregnancy so we are broadly talking about the fallopian tube pregnancy.
Any pregnancy could be an ectopic pregnancy, so awareness of this problem is a must. This type of pregnancy usually presents with a lower abdominal pain. When in doubt an ultrasound and blood test for serum Beta HCG helps in diagnosing it.
Sometimes you may not have any symptom and your routine early pregnancy ultrasound may show an ectopic pregnancy.
Many times when it is left undiagnosed and allowed to go beyond six weeks of pregnancy it leads to rupture of the fallopian tube leading to bleeding inside the abdomen along with severe pain, leading to shock and the lady collapses. This is big emergency as she needs urgent surgery to stop the bleeding and she will also require blood transfusion. If managed in time the patient recovers well although her ruptured fallopian tube might have been removed.
If diagnosed in the unruptured stage then ectopic pregnancy can be treated medically under supervision.
One important point, as these days abortion pills are very popular and also available off the counter, be sure that you are not ectopic pregnant before using these pills. Such a situation can be life threatening. This is even more crucial in unmarried pregnant girls who take these pills very secretly. So please, please be aware of the fact that you may be ectopic pregnant so do not shy away from the doctor.
