FERTILITY FOLLOWING ECTOPIC PREGNANCY

In addition to the acute adverse consequences of ectopic pregnancy, th e subsequent reproductive potential of the affected women has continue d to attract the attention of medical scientists in recent times. In a study to evaluate the fertility potentials in 138 patients treated fo r ectopic pregnancy in the King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) Riya dh, 105 (76.1%) of the patients had follow-up management for periods v arying from 12 to 60 months. Since all these patients desired pregnanc ies, they were classified as ''at risk'' for evaluation of their repro ductive potentials. Of these, 51 (48.6%) eventually became pregnant an d 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 infl ammatory disease (PID), perhaps compounded by the effects of the ectop ic pregnancy and the management, among other factors.