How do i know im having a ectopic pregancy,

Katherine - posted on 06/16/2012

Good to hear Tabitha. Glad you're ok. Although I'm sorry for you're loss.

Tabatha - posted on 06/16/2012

Thank you for all your comments.

After posting on this i decided to go back and see my doctor and she told me to go to ED straight away. I finally went for an internal ultrasound and they could not find a pregnancy, yet my ECG levels were very very high. I had a lot of fluid around my uterus so they decided to take me into surgery.

The fluid was blood and the preganancy was inside my falopion tube. I am glad in a way they picked this up very early and i did not have to get my tube cut out either.
One thing i didnt ask the doctor was how it got in the falopion tube which i would like to know.

This is not going to stop me and my partner trying again. So once healthy and fit I do want to keep trying.

Once again thank you for your feedback.

Danielle - posted on 06/15/2012

I had an eptopic pregnancy a couple years ago.
It wasn't until the day I misscarried that we realized I was pregnant at all.
I felt very faint, and started to get very, very painful stomach cramps, specifically on my left side where the embryo had implanted in the tube. It was to the point I could move or breathe to deep without searing pain. I would also get sharp pains in my shoulder, like I had just run a marathon.. I had light, bright red/cloudy grayish discharge. I took a test because I wasn't sure if it could be my apendix, but the test came out positive,

When we went to the hospital they did an internal ultrasound and discovered the embryo had ruptured away from the tube, and my body was miscarrying it without intervention. As a result of the implantation, I developed a large 'golf ball' sizes cyst where the egg had implanted a couple weeks later.

Usually, with eptopic pregnancies one side will hurt more than the other (because of where the egg has implanted). If you have been bleeding for over two weeks, you may have experianced, or experiancing a regular miscarriage. If you had been bleeding for two weeks I would assume that if you had an eptopic miscarriage that it would have passed already, and the ultrasound is just to confirm.

Is there a reason why you suspected it to be an eptopic pregnancy?

Marissa - posted on 06/15/2012

I had an ectopic pregnancy last year... I took 3 tests when I found out I was pregnant and they were all very faint, wouldn't get dark. My hcg levels were very low nd never went over 100, so they though I was just early...I bled the whole time but it wasn't heavy, the drs thout it was my cervix blood vessels from having sex... I went in to hear the heartbeat at 13 weeks and they couldn't find it so they took me in for ultrasound the. Straight to surgery.the bleeding was my tube trying to protect its self instead of ruperturing, however if I would have waited any longer it would have killed me. It's not something you want to mess around with. If your bleeding and cramping go to the er...

Katherine - posted on 06/13/2012

What kind of bleeding? Heavy or light?

Katherine - posted on 06/13/2012

What are the symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy?

Symptoms can appear early in pregnancy and may vary from woman to woman. However, many women have no symptoms at all until the ectopic pregnancy has ruptured.

You may miss a period and begin to experience some of the same symptoms you'd have with a normal pregnancy – like sore breasts, fatigue, and nausea. (If you take an at-home pregnancy test, the result may be positive.) Initially, you may have symptoms such as abdominal tenderness or pain and vaginal bleeding, which may be sporadic and light.

Sometimes an ectopic pregnancy is first suspected when a woman goes to her first prenatal visit and has pain during an abdominal or pelvic exam, or her caregiver detects a mass. Or, it may even be discovered during a first-trimester ultrasound done for another reason.

If you do have any symptoms, it's important to take them seriously. To prevent rupture – a true obstetric emergency – it's critical to get diagnosed and treated as soon as there's even a hint of a problem.

Call your practitioner immediately if you have any of the following symptoms:

• Abdominal or pelvic pain or tenderness. It can be sudden, persistent, and severe but may also be mild and intermittent early on. You may find that it gets worse when you're active or while moving your bowels or coughing. You may feel it only on one side, but the pain can be anywhere in your abdomen or pelvis. It may be dull or sharp, and you may also have nausea and vomiting.

• Vaginal spotting or bleeding if you've had a positive pregnancy test result. It may look like the start of a light period. The blood may look red or brown, like the color of dried blood, and may be continuous or intermittent, heavy or light.

• Shoulder pain. Cramping and bleeding can mean many things, but pain in your shoulder, particularly when you lie down, is a red flag for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, and it's critical to get medical attention immediately. The cause of the pain is internal bleeding, which irritates nerves that go to your shoulder area.

• If a fallopian tube has ruptured, you may also have signs of shock, such as a weak, racing pulse; pale, clammy skin; and dizziness or fainting. In that case, call 911 without delay.

It's also important to seek early care if you think you're pregnant and are in a high-risk group for ectopic pregnancy, particularly if you become pregnant despite having an IUD in place or after having had a tubal ligation, or if you've had other tubal surgery, a previous ectopic pregnancy, or PID.

If you're receiving fertility treatments and become pregnant, your healthcare provider will carefully monitor your pregnancy, but be sure to alert her immediately to any ectopic pregnancy symptoms you think you may have.