Fertility, Ectopic and Pregnancy
My Story
2017 was a fantastic year of reaching my ultimate dream and goal, completing an IRONMAN. The plan was to go into pregnancy ironman fit, however having a fabulous year of cycling adventures in the mountains, cycles from London to Amsterdam, London to Paris… we decided to continue the adventures well into 2018. I then fell pregnant in early 2018. 1 month after returning from Barbados, a zika risk area. We had 2 weeks in and out of the tropical centre for diseases in London with multiple bloods as Matt’s private test came up positive for one of the elements of the test. After 2 weeks of constant hospital trips we then found out that we were Zika free. The stress, the tears took it’s toll mentally and physically. Not being able to fully celebrate being pregnant, the worry, I then started to bleed. I then had 2 weeks in and out of hospital again, this time the nurses weren’t sure if I was suffering from a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy. My LH hormones had started to decline (potential miscarriage) then all of a sudden started to increase (potential ectopic). After an internal scan, they couldn’t see a foetus in the womb so they had to keep tabs on my blood LH levels.
I had 2 weeks of going into work, huge pain in my abdomen, bleeding and not knowing what was happening. It was confusing, numbing and hugely upsetting. Work was taking a hit, my triathlon training was taking a hit (I was training for a Team GB age group event for the Multi Sport World Championships 3 months later.) I was going to meetings, holding talks for Liv Cycling and having to carry on my usual life. Never under estimate what women have to go through, and often in silence. Thankfully at the time I was working in a team of 5 strong women who gave me fantastic support inside and outside work.
Finally one day, the pain was so bad, I was hunched over my desk in agony, I went to present to a client then made my way to the hospital. By now the nurses at the women’s ward knew me, I was on my 5th blood test in the last couple of weeks. They did another, excruciatingly painful internal scan. This time they found the foetus, and it was growing outside the womb, in my fallopian tube. I was 7 weeks pregnant by this point and the foetus was close to splitting the fallopian tube which can result in internal bleeding which is fatal.
I was immediately rushed into a hospital room, hooked onto a drip and told that I would be taken over to the women hospital where I will be operated on to remove the foetus and the very damaged fallopian tube.
I had been in denial for those weeks about the ectopic, only 1 in 80 women suffer from ectopic pregnancy, surely that wouldn’t be me!?
We were assured taking a fallopian tube out wouldn’t affect future pregnancies and definitely won’t cut my chance of getting pregnant by 50%. You can ovulate through 1 fallopian tube.
Because I had that coffee morning client, they class drinking Milk as eating and they couldn’t put me under general anaesthetic until the end of the day, so I had 8 hours of sitting in hospital waiting for the operation.
Recovery from the ectopic took 6-8 weeks, I had an infection in the wound which means I had to wait 8 weeks to swim but 6 weeks to cycle. I then went onto represent Team GB a couple of months later and come 4th in my age group. We bought a beautiful dog called Freddie who really helped with the recovery and having something to take care of, nurture and love. Mentally the healing is longer, I still think and mourn for my lost baby. Also the guilt that I had somehow something to do with the ectopic - could it have been that cycle from London to Amsterdam? How about that big night out on the tiles in Amsterdam? Was it the stress from the Zika virus? Who knows. I seeked the help of a professional therapist to help me come to peace with what happened.
A year later I find myself pregnant with a healthy baby, utterly relieved of what happened. I am currently 24 weeks pregnant. The 1st trimester was 3 months of constant anxiety and worry but you do get early scans as Ectopic means you are deemed as high risk.
I wanted to write my story to build awareness of Ectopic Pregnancies and my recovery to help give courage to anyone going through similar that recovery is .
Here are some facts about Ectopics and useful links:
An ectopic pregnancy is where the fertilised egg becomes implanted outside of the womb, usually in the fallopian tube but, occasionally, in the ovaries, cervix or abdomen. This is a life threatening condition that, as the pregnancy grows, can cause pain, bleeding and rupture, and can lead to collapse and, in rare cases, death
1 in 80 pregnancies result in an Ectopic
Your body can ovulate through 1 fallopian tube
The chances of having a future successful pregnancy are very good and 65% of women are healthily pregnant within 18 months of an ectopic pregnancy. Some studies suggest this figure rises to around 85% over 2 years. Your chance of conceiving depends very much on the health of your tubes.
Your chances to conceive again DO NOT half after an ectopic pregnancy if you lose a fallopian tube