Infertility is a heavy cross to bear, and that is the reason why most couples choose to go in for some form of treatment in order to conceive. The thing with fertility treatments is that the chances of success are often unpredictable. You never know if you’re going to conceive, and even when you do, you don’t know if you’re going to carry the pregnancy to term. There are a lot of unforeseen complications that could arise, the most common of them being the fetus’s inability to implant properly and so leading to a natural abortion. One of the main factors that complicate assisted reproductive techniques is the age of the women undergoing the treatment; they’re often above the age of 30, and this in itself becomes an inhibitor to pregnancy.
A friend of mine went through a torturous ordeal in her attempt to get pregnant. After suffering through innumerous IUI sittings that did not work and several IVF cycles that left her and her husband with only disappointment and a dent in their bank balance, she finally conceived through an intrauterine insemination procedure. Her jubilation knew no bounds, and since she was pushing 35, her family decided that she needed complete rest. Even so, she experienced spotting and bleeding around the sixth week, and when rushed to the hospital, learned that the fetal sac showed no heartbeat.
Dejected and disappointed beyond words, she underwent the necessary D&C procedure and then went home to recuperate from the physical and emotional trauma. Although she continued to experience dizziness and spells of nausea even after a few days, she attributed it to the aftereffects of the induced abortion. It was only when she began experiencing a severe pain in the abdomen that she realized that something was seriously wrong.
An ultrasound showed a 7-week fetus developing in her fallopian tube which had burst open. She was bleeding internally and had to be rushed for an emergency laparotomy. The good news is that she made it through the experience without too many physical complications, but on the other side of the coin, we have to question the oversight of the doctor who failed to diagnose that hers was a heterotopic pregnancy, a case where there is more than one fetus, one or more of which is in the uterus, and the other outside.
While this occurrence is rare in a natural pregnancy with only 1 in 30,000 women carrying both intra and extra uterine fetuses, it is more common in an assisted reproductive technique where ovulation is simulated and occurs in 1 in 100 women. With that being the case, shouldn’t the concerned OBGYN have been more careful when making her initial diagnosis since this is a potentially fatal condition?
This experience taught my friend (and all those connected to her) that It’s important to understand the inherent risks of fertility treatments before going in for the process. And it’s even more imperative that your doctor be totally efficient and careful so that a medical oversight does not turn into a fatal conclusion.