Fertility after ectopic pregnancy: first results of a population-based cohort study in france

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the reproductive outcome after ectopic pregnancy (EP) from a population-based register in the centre of France. Since 1992, all the women aged 15-44 years, who permanently reside in the target area and who were treated either by surgical or medical procedures for an ectopic pregnancy in one of the area centres, have been registered and prospectively followed until 45 years of age. The analysis presented was based on the 155 women registered between January 1992 and March 1994 who were followed up for at least 6 months, and who were seeking a new pregnancy. The mean follow-up period was 16 months. A total of 102 women (66%) obtained a pregnancy. The first conception was intrauterine for 92 women, and 10 had a recurrence of ectopic pregnancy. Risk factors of recurrence were prior spontaneous abortion and prior tubal damage. For those women who conceived, the mean time to obtain pregnancy ('time to pregnancy') was 4.8 months. The 1 year cumulative intrauterine pregnancy rate (i.e. the probability of obtaining an intrauterine pregnancy within 1 year of seeking pregnancy) was 70%. After multivariate analysis by a Cox regression, the factors associated with higher fertility were age < 30 years, high educational level and no prior tubal damage.