Ending Ectopic Pregnancy

Researchers say one out of every 100 pregnancies is ectopic. That’s when the egg grows outside the womb. Surgery is usually required, but now doctors believe they have a better, easier way.

Gerri counts her blessings every day. Being with her 3-year-old son, Logan, makes life complete. But Logan wasn’t her first pregnancy.

“About a week or two after I knew I was pregnant, I started spotting,” says Gerri. She was rushed to the hospital, where she had an ultrasound. “They didn’t see the pregnancy in the uterus. So they assumed that it was in the tube,” she says.

Gerri was having an ectopic pregnancy. The fertilized egg was attached outside the uterus. Ectopic pregnancies are potentially life threatening.

Dr. Eisenstein says ectopic pregnancies do not develop normally. Surgery is done to remove the pregnancy. Now an injection of a cancer drug called methotrexate is having the same result.

“Methotrexate interferes with DNA production. So any tissue that’s growing fast and needs to reproduce the cells, this will poison it,” says Dr. Eisenstein, an obstetrician/gynecologist.

Dr. Eisenstein reviewed literature on more than 700 women. He found the drug was 94 percent successful.

Gerri was able to get pregnant again right away after being treated with the injection. “You know, Logan has given me more than I ever imagined in return,” she says.

Doctors say the drug is not for everyone. It can only be used early in the pregnancy. They say that’s why it’s so important to see a doctor as soon as you discover you’re pregnant.