Abstract
Ectopic pregnancy (EP) accounts for 1–2% of pregnancies and represents a major event in a woman’s reproductive lifetime. EP can be due to either contraceptive or reproductive failure and complicates infertility treatment. EP must be diagnosed early to simplify the treatment strategy, which must always be directed towards optimizing subsequent fertility. Epidemiologic findings indicate that a history of tubal disease and smoking are the principal risk factors of EPs considered to be reproductive (rather than contraceptive) failures. A risk scale to determine the probability of EP for any given patient was constructed by adding together the attributable risks for different EP risk factors. The diagnostic strategy uses abdominal and transvaginal ultrasound and human chorionic gonadotrophin assays. Progesterone assays are useful only for determining the activity of the pregnancy but do not help to identify its site. In the future, a proteomic approach or better knowledge of the multiple human chorionic gonadotrophin-related molecules present in serum and urine during pregnancy might facilitate the differentiation of normal and abnormal pregnancies.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.