Shocking stat: 1 in 38 pregnancies is tubal (ectopic) - life threatening

[Liberty Belle]

http://phys.org/news/2011-04-tubal-pregnancies.html

Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, about as reliable as it gets.

This is alarming - the rate ectopic pregnancies has risen to over 26.2 per 1,000. That's 2.62 per 100 - or 1 in every 38 pregnancies. They don't know why it's increasing. But it makes crazies like Rep. Akins and VP candidate Paul Ryan all the more dangerous. 1 in 38 pregnant women will have their lives put at risk if they can't get abortions. And of course there are other life-threatening conditions during pregnancy beside this one. Please tell every women you know about this -- and men too. Ask them NOT to support candidates who would kill women to forward their own deluded religious beliefs. Their policies are not pro life, they are anti-life for women. There isn't even a baby to save in these cases - the tube bursts and the fetus dies. Only question is can you stop the woman from bleeding to death before this happens?


Rising rates of tubal pregnancies cause concern

<snip>
April 5, 2011Although some experts thought the problem was becoming less common, the study suggests otherwise.

<snip>The study looked at female inpatients and outpatients, ages 15 to 44 years, enrolled in Group Health Cooperative over a 15-year period. Group Health Cooperative is a managed care system that serves residents of the state of Washington and of western Idaho.

The new study, which appears online and in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, looked at 2,114 cases of ectopic pregnancy. Of these, 726 occurred in inpatients and 1,388 in outpatients. Trabert conducted the study as part of her doctoral dissertation at the University of Washington. The study did notfocus on the reasons for any of the trends, which included an increase from 19.2 to 26.2 tubal pregnancies per 1,000 pregnancies over the 1993 to 2007 timeframe. “There are a number of factors that have contributed to this apparent increase in ectopic pregnancies,” said Debbie Kirkpatrick M.D., a vice chair for clinical affairs in the obstetrics and gynecology department at Indiana University.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2011-04-tubal-pregnancies.html#jCp

[aquart]

1. That is waaay too many. What's going on?

[Liberty Belle]

22. risk factors that raise odds of an ectopic pregnancy:

NOTE: I think some key reasons for the huge increase are DES which caused reproductive problems in an entire generation of women (as a DES daughter I curse the Eli Lily company for putting that poison on the market). Also the rise in use of in-vitro fertilization, as well as birth control pills. If more women are smoking that could do it too. Some of the other stuff like infections and endometriosis are nothing new, so not likely to account for the spike.


http://www.webmd.com/baby/tc/ectopic-pregnancy-what-increases-your-risk
Ectopic Pregnancy - What Increases Your Risk
Factors that can increase your risk of having an ectopic pregnancy include:1
• A previous ectopic pregnancy.
• Past or present cigarette smoking, which increases your risk of having an ectopic pregnancy. The more you smoke, the higher the risk. Experts suspect that smoking affects fallopian tube function.1, 2
• A history of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), often caused by chlamydia or gonorrhea.
• Endometriosis, which can cause scar tissue in or around the fallopian tubes.
• Exposure to the chemical DES (diethylstilbestrol) before you were born.
Medical treatments and procedures that can increase your risk of having an ectopic pregnancy include:
• Previous fallopian tube surgery to treat infertility or to reverse a tubal ligation.
• A tubal ligation failure. In rare cases when pregnancy happens after a sterilization surgery, there is a higher-than-usual risk that the pregnancy is ectopic.
• A progestin-only birth control failure, such as progestin-only pills, or a pregnancy that happens with an intrauterine device (IUD) in place.2
• Treatment with assisted reproductive technology (ART), such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).2 This may result from the flushing of the fertilized egg into a damaged fallopian tube after it is transferred to the uterus.
• Infection after any kind of surgery done on the uterus or fallopian tubes. This can lead to scar tissue.
Ectopic pregnancy has been linked to the use of medicine used to make the ovary release multiple eggs (superovulation). Experts do not yet know whether this is because many women using it already have fallopian tube damage or because of the medicine itself.1
If you become pregnant and are at high risk for ectopic pregnancy, you will be closely watched. Doctors do not always agree about which risk factors are serious enough to watch closely. But research suggests that risk is serious enough if you have had a tubal surgery or an ectopic pregnancy before, had DES exposure before birth, have known fallopian tube problems, or have a pregnancy with an intrauterine device (IUD) in place.1

[pnwmom]

2. Removing a fallopian tube with a T.P isn't really an abortion and I think few right-to-lifers

have a problem with ending that type of pregnancy because it could never survive in that location.

[freshwest]

3. But the AZ law said that a doctor could tell a woman if she had one, right?

I think they write it off to God's will unless it's Sanctorum's wife.

When her life was endangered he agreed to a partial birth abortion. He still came out in favor of not allowing abortions even to save the woman's life later.

The run of the mill pro-lifers may not be that radical. But the people they voted into office are.

[intaglio]

4. Most Right to Lifers believe life starts at fertilisation

A few say it is at implantation. In both cases they would regard the removal of an ectopic pregnancy as "murder"

I have seen it argued that, because ectopics do not always kill the mother there is a chance that a live birth could still occur. They ignore the agony the mother would have to live through, the very high risk of death throughout the pregnancy for mother and child as well as the near certainty of death at parturition.

Oh and IIRC they ignore the gross physical damage to the fetus that growing in the FT causes.

I would not be shocked if some of the RtLs argue that "God" gave us cesarean section an pain killers for circumstances like this ...

[pnwmom]

5. Not the Catholic ones. RC theologians recognize there is a zero chance of a fetus

surviving an ectopic pregnancy; and they have a concept called "double effect" that allows a fallopian tube to be removed to save the mother, with the death of the fetus being a kind of collateral damage, but not the main purpose of the surgery. (unlike uterine abortion)

[Freddie]

9. True

The RCC has that collateral damage thing whereby if the surgery that is done to save the mothers life has to remove (therefore kill) the fetus along with the fallopian tube, it's allowable. In ectopic pregnancies there is never a question of "whose life to save" as it's too early for the fetus to possibly survive.
It's "directly killing" the fetus that the Church does not allow, in cases like pre-eclampsia or infections that require no other surgery but abortion. In those cases the true hard-liner Catholic would prefer the mother to die. That's the part I find truly immoral.

[pnwmom]

11. Fortunately, there are few Catholics that hardline. Unfortunately,

some of them work in or direct hospitals.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. If Ryan's Personhood for embryos passes, they'd want both mother and embryo die than intervene. nt

[Yo_Mama]

16. No, if the child can't be born they don't consider it wrong

Nor is there any constitutional chance that these procedures will be banned. Nor were they ever illegal in the US, although diagnosing them is a lot easier now and so more lives are saved.

Not even the Catholic Church, which has by far the hardest line on terminating pregnancies due to medical conditions, denies a termination for an ectopic pregnancy. They are done in Catholic hospitals all the time.

[smirkymonkey]

20. My Mother died in a cathothic hospital in childbirth.

From what I understood, it could have been prevented. It wasn't and I stll don't know why. I suppose that is why I hate Cathliocicm and why I have never had children.

[Liberty Belle]

21. There are "pro life" sites urging women not to end ectopic pregnancies

and offering false and dangerous hope that it might be possible to carry to term.

Carrying to term is 100% impossible if it's in the Fallopian tube. There s a very remote chance of doing so if it implants in the abdomen, but at enormous risk to both mother and baby; a handful of such children have been born, but there can be terrible deformities and the mother can bleed out, among other serious problems; some women have had to have organs removed, even the colon.

The fact that there are crazy wingnuts out there pushing this clearly indicates there are some who would deny a woman an abortion even in this extreme case.

[glowing]

6. I'm thinking with the increase in fertility drugs

which typically dump a bunch of eggs at a time to increase pregnancy, the chances go up that it could be ectopic.

Also, there is the chance that a fetilization happens in the tubal area and then drips into the uterus to attach. If it doesn't, then, an abortion is the option.

I'm thinking that women dying of child birth has decreased with modern medicine since we can detect issues before a babies birth. Like my son's 1st grade teacher... There is a problem with her babies heart. They weren't sure if they would be able to keep the baby. The doctors determined that it's a valve they can fix; so at birth, the baby will be having surgery. So, it was touch and go on a wanted pregnancy. My sister's first baby stopped growing at 7 wks (she had a D & C - same as they do for abortions). Her second attempt gave us my wonderful niece. And moat recently, a girl at work became pregnant, she was not financially in a place to have a 2nd child and decided abortion was her only option. She has 1 mouth to feed already and just moved back in with her parents.... So, if we had the social safety net and support system for women to have babies, more might choose to have them? But economics and our step-son who is 7 (and into everything including tackle football) has cost $! So, we've back burnered the baby issue for now. (can't wait too much longer because of age, but in the next couple of yrs.. We r
Hoping we can).

We have to stop fighting for the past; make our rights and expectation, and push for better ways in which to live and parent in the first place!!! Quit going backwards.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. or maybe IUDs?

was my first thought. they prevent implantation in the uterus, so as uterine pregnancies go down the percentage of ectopics would rise. that's a pretty big rise tho

[glowing]

13. That's a possibility as well. Nt

[pnwmom]

12. Actually, fertilization in normal pregnancies does occur in one of the tubes;

then the fertilized egg travels into the uterus and attaches there. But sometimes scarring or some other obstruction causes the fertilized egg to get stuck in the wrong place.

When you read about all the things that can go wrong, it's amazing that any of us are here!

[glowing]

14. That's right... I'm wondering with women

tending to wait longer for marriage and child birth, the age may factor in?

I'm not sure whom they studied or the break down on avg age of the women they were studying?

Also, environmentally, we are exposes to a lot of chemicals. I wonder if the number of women experiencing irregular pap smears; i.e., detecting pre-cancerous cells or cysts occurring on ovaries or what not have also increased over the last 20 yrs along with this study.

I know that women, in general, have mercury in their breast milk from exposure to environmental factors. There isn't a fresh water lake in Americathay doesn't have fish with mercury in it... And bio-accumulation of certain fish would cause humans higher consumption their own selves.... We all know the "expectations" of look/ health/ fitness Press for more amounts of fish in one's diet for the heart healthy effects... (coal powered electric plants are a huge source of polution and mercury exposure--- if they were to put their scrubbers on like they are supposed to and stop buying ploiticians for waivers, we might be able to reduce our mercury exposure-- its more likely the source of exposure for autistic children than the vaccine thing is).

Women also tend to clean the home more; the products are full of chemicals they can't pronounce and with limited MSDS info OR how the different chemicals react with one another as mixed. Then their is GMO freak foods and chemicals sprayed onto our veggies... Along with overprocessed everything.

It's actually amazing how resilient the human body is that we haven't eliminated our species all together.

[pnwmom]

15. A good argument against too much cleaning!

Reminds me of something Phyllis Diller said. It was something like: "Housework can't kill you. But why take a chance?"

[glowing]

19. Use the basics like Grandma used to.

White vinegar and hot water are amazing on the floors... Add a bit of lemon juice and u have the lemon scent. Bleach works well for mold on tiles; mix with water in a spray bottle. And now there are slot more "green" products at reasonable prices in the store now.. Use those for laundry... Try to air dry clothes outside (if possible). Simple things.

Wish we could get our GMO foods labeled; we would have many more people demanding that the food in their cart that they r spending a fortune on isn't franken food.

[tclambert]

7. If it's a legitimate ectopic pregnancy, doesn't the female body have ways of shutting that down?

Oh, of course it does. Death.

[Yo_Mama]

17. Quite a few of these end on their own

If it's detected very early, one of the recommended treatments is monitoring because there is a decent chance that the pregnancy will end on its own. If certain hormones levels are low, the tissue may just die and be ejected spontaneously.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Obstetrics_and_Gynecology/Ectopic_Pregnancies,_Spontaneous_Abortion,_and_other_First_Trimester_Complications#Management_3

With modern testing we are probably detecting more of these than we used to. If they continue on, of course then the rapid increase in size is going to cause a problem.

[FarCenter]

18. It's due to intelligent design.