FERTILITY FOLLOWING ECTOPIC PREGNANCY

In addition to the acute adverse consequences of ectopic pregnancy, the subsequent reproductive potential of the affected women has continued to attract the attention of medical scientists in recent times. In a study to evaluate the fertility potentials in 138 patients treated for ectopic pregnancy in the King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) Riyadh, 105 (76.1%) of the patients had follow-up management for periods varying from 12 to 60 months. Since all these patients desired pregnancies, they were classified as ''at risk'' for evaluation of their reproductive potentials. Of these, 51 (48.6%) eventually became pregnant and produced 63 viable pregnancies, 18 abortions and one repeat ectopic pregnancy. Many of those who failed to become pregnant over the follow-up period probably had tubal damage due to the antecedent pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), perhaps compounded by the effects of the ectopic pregnancy and the management, among other factors.