Ectopic Pregnancy ‘Not Rare’ After Sterilization, Study Finds
From Times staff and wire reports
The tubal sterilization procedures commonly used by women can leave them vulnerable to pregnancy and, all too often, the fertilized egg becomes lodged in the tube leading to the womb, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the March 13 New England Journal of Medicine.
Having an ectopic pregnancy “after sterilization is not rare, particularly among women sterilized before age 30,” was the conclusion of a team that spent 14 years checking 10,685 women who had been sterilized. They found 143 cases of pregnancy where it was clear that the sterilization had failed; 47 of those were ectopic pregnancies.
