title: Ectopic pregnancy in relation to previous induced abortion.
abstract: Women who were hospitalized for ectopic pregnancy in five hospitals in King County, Washington, were interviewed concerning history of induced abortion. For comparison, women who delivered a live-born child during this same time period were also interviewed. Relative to women who had never undergone an abortion, the risk in those who had was increased to a modest degree, but this increase could well have been the result of chance (relative risk, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.7 to 2.6). For women who had two or more abortions, the relative risk was 1.8 (95% confidence interval, 0.5 to 7.1). Our results suggest that legal abortion as performed during the past decade in the United States does not carry a large excess risk for future ectopic pregnancy, but larger studies will be needed in order to determine more precisely the magnitude of any excess that does exist.
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011274:Pregnancy, Tubal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012086:Reoperation; D012306:Risk; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014861:Washington