Interstitial ectopic pregnancy resulting in major abdominal surgery

Sending hope after an interstitial ectopic pregnancy resulting in major abdominal surgery. 

When I had my ectopic pregnancy in 2023, I spent hours pouring through the personal stories on this site, desperate for the stories of women brave and lucky enough to fall pregnant again and have a baby, which I wanted so badly for myself. I promised myself I would share my experience on here if I was eventually lucky enough to give that hope to someone else myself. 

In March 2023, I fell pregnant, and my husband and I were so excited. But sadly, within weeks I started spotting, then bleeding, and suffered an early pregnancy loss. We were devastated. 

Although multiple doctors told me I was just unlucky to experience one of the 1/5 pregnancies that end in loss, I was desperately worried this meant there was something wrong with me and that I wouldn’t have a healthy pregnancy in the future. I started to become obsessed about fertility.  

A few months later we were lucky to have another positive pregnancy test, but this time I was beyond anxious about losing it again. I was spotting again. I went for early scans to try and get onto progesterone supplements to improve any chances I had of the pregnancy continuing. But at 6.5 weeks, with no pregnancy visible in my womb, I was diagnosed as the unlucky 1/80 to have an ectopic pregnancy.  

In fact, the type I had was rare too: I was the ~2% of ectopic pregnancies to be corneal/interstitial (i.e. implanted in the outer edge of my womb where my Fallopian tube joined it). The doctors explained the risk to my life and that my only option was keyhole surgery that day. My husband and I were devastated again. 

Even more unfortunately, my surgery then went pretty wrong. My mesenteric artery was accidentally hit at the beginning of the operation, converting it to emergency open surgery with over 4 pints of blood lost, multiple blood transfusions, doctors called in from other hospitals to help and a longer hospital stay than I should have had. Instead of a few weeks to recover physically, it ended up taking me closer to 6 months, with two full months off work. I was told to wait at least 6 months to try for a baby again.  

Despite all of this, I have always truly felt grateful just to be alive after the ectopic: that my concerns about spotting had been taken seriously; that being scanned early meant it was diagnosed before it ruptured; that I woke up at all after the surgery; and, that (although slowly) my body was recovering normally. That gratitude and focus on recovery took most of my energy and attention away from how sad it was to have lost two pregnancies for a little while. 

However, as I got better, my fear that I would never become a mum worsened. I was now one Fallopian tube down, and I now had a scary increased ~1/10 chance of another ectopic pregnancy in the future. The edge of my womb was also weakened where the ectopic was removed. And the 1/5 chance of another miscarriage remained the same. My fertility obsession intensified, with various medical investigations, supplements, apps, acupuncture appointments… anything to try and reassure myself that I was doing everything I could. 

I am so happy to say I fell pregnant again in spring 2024 and am now writing this with a healthy 11-week-old asleep on my chest. However, I can’t truly put into words the anxiety of the last two years. I was terrified I wouldn’t fall pregnant, and then when I became pregnant again, although I was both thrilled and relieved, I was terrified that it would be an ectopic pregnancy, or that I would miscarry again, or that something else would go wrong. I was able to enjoy the pregnancy more and more as time went on, but my anxiety never left, right up to the birth.  

I still regularly spend time thinking about all I’ve been through, processing it all. How unlucky I’ve been on so many counts and how sad it is, but also how very lucky I am on so many other counts. I am so grateful to be where I am now with my lovely son, and to have had an amazing husband and supportive friends and family through everything, looking after me in my recovery and continually telling me it would happen for us eventually, even when I was losing belief myself. 

I know future pregnancies will carry the same risks and likely the same anxieties, which is tough, but I’m now more hopeful and positive than before. 

Thank you to everyone’s stories on here I read that made/makes me feel less alone and wishing the very best for anyone reading this. 

 

 

Thank you to our contributor for sharing her experience. If you would like to share your experience of ectopic pregnancy, please visit our guide for more information.                  

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