Look at where you get your information. Make sure it’s reliable. Stop causing more pain to people already in a rough place.
[image description: screenshot of a Facebook post by Marisa Dahlman, timestamped Friday at 3:16pm. Date not specified.
Post reads as follows
I performed an emergency surgery several months ago to treat a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. The patient could have died, but we were able to stabilize her and send her home the same day.
She called my office this week in tears asking why we did not reimplant her pregnancy in her uterus, why did we not offer her this option. Because maybe her baby didn’t have to die.
Pseudoscience is invading my operating room and my relationship with my patients. This poor woman had to have emergency surgery, and then grieved the loss of a pregnancy that was never viable, that could have killed her.
And now she is grieving it again because politicians who lack even the most basic understanding of the physiology of pregnancy are dangling untruths in front of her and calling it fact.
In case anyone reading this is wondering, THIS IS NOT A THING. It is NOT POSSIBLE to reimplant ectopic pregnancies into the uterus. These are NOT viable pregnancies, and all the wishing in the world, the magical thinking, the political grandstanding, will not make it so.
End image description]
Hi friends. Quick anatomy lesson, complete with fun pictures.
This is the reproductive system in question.
Interesting, right? I’ve been told it looks like a shark.
In viable pregnancies, a fertilized egg (known as a zygote in biology) implants in the wall of the uterus.
As the pregnancy progresses, the zygote grows. Cells undergo mitosis (where the cells replicate) and differentiation (where the cells take on special jobs and become organ systems). At full term, the zygote resembles a baby we know.
The placenta delivers nutrients to the fetus and helps detoxify wastes. From the placenta comes the umbilical cord, which serves a similar purpose. The fetus’ head presses against the cervix, through which it will pass during birth. The part in the circle are the pregnant person’s internal organs! The uterus smooshes them to make room. It’s no wonder they use the restroom so often!
In an ectopic pregnancy, however, the zygote doesn’t implant correctly.
It can implant in a variety of places (including the fallopian tube, pictured) to which it is not suited.
After it implants, it continues to undergo mitosis (which we talked about earlier). Whereas the uterus is equipped to deal with this exponential growth, other parts of the body are not.
As the zygote grows, it puts immense strain on the organ it implanted in. If it continues to grow too long, it can rupture! The zygote will lose blood supply and will quickly die. The pregnant person will begin to bleed internally without proper medical care. Left alone, it can lead to death of the pregnant person.
This diagram is a little complex, but put very simply, because the zygote hasn’t implanted in the right place originally, it cannot be removed and implanted in the correct one. It won’t be able to fuse correctly with the uterus, or to send signals to develop the umbilical cord and placenta we talked about earlier, not to mention that the rupture causes blood to be diverted from the zygote, effectively killing it before it can be implanted.
Not only is it futile, but it’s unsafe for the pregnant person. Ectopic pregnancies cause blood loss, which is exacerbated by further surgical intervention. Exposure to external environments exposes the zygote to infection, and surgical implantation exposes the pregnant person to infection, which could also lead to pregnancy complication or loss.
To make a long story short: you cannot reimplant an ectopic pregnancy. Please stop trying.
Please reblog this from the person above and not from the TERFs that jumped in after. Thanks :)
TLDR: an “ectopic pregnancy” isn’t a viable pregnancy because as soon as it implantedsomewhereother than the uterus, it became incapable of implanting in a uterus.
An “ectopic pregnancy” is already a miscarriage,just with the side “bonus” of being fairly likely to kill the person having it.
Thank you very much to the person above us who carefully, clearly, and accurately summed this up - I think this is information that should absolutely be better known about.
Right so I did say that I’ll start talking about what we learn in med school. I’m currently doing the reproductive/ female system. And boy is it complicated but it’s also pretty amazing.
So as I’m still studying obviously let’s talk about the best thing I learnt in the first two days.
How your body releases eggs in the midpoint of the cycle. I’m not gonna talk about the hormonal basis here. Maybe in a future post.
Please excuse my rambling from this point onwards.Also I don’t know what kinda terminology should I use. Do I keep it as simple as possible? Or do I try to explain our terminology? Idk we’ll see if anyone interacts with this post.
Alright so the egg/ ovum/ oocyte develops in the ovary as we all know! It is supported through out its development by a surrounding group of cells forming a follicle.
The final follicle (mature/ graafian) is relatively huge with a 2-2.5 cm diameter. This means that it bulges on the surface.
24-36 hours before ovulation, blood flow to the part of the ovarian wall overlying this bulge stops ——> it eventually ruptures exposing the follicle. A couple of things happen inside the follicle leading to the egg with some surrounding follicular cells being expelled into the abdominal cavity.
Yes, the egg is just there chilling in the middle of all your abdominal organs. The end of the tubes/ oviduct/ Fallopian tube closest to the ovary is funnel shaped and has finger like extensions (Fimbria). They pick up the egg to send it to the uterus eventually.
So what if they fail to pick up the egg? In most cases nothing happens. But if a particularly active sperm manages to somehow reach the egg and fertilize it, we get an ectopic pregnancy in the abdomen. There are case reports about these pregnancies and here’s the link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4170250/
