Angel0423 RE:Tubes, ectopic pregnancies, and more!

Shayliz

I didn't want to take up other people sharing their stories in the other thread. 

I'm really glad you're just having a baby and not caring for someone having one because you are incorrect.  You CAN release an egg that winds up in the other tube. You do understand that your tube is not connected to your ovaries, correct? The tubes float near the ovaries and during ovulation, there are little bits that send out "signals" to draw the egg to it.. basically the tube tries to seduce the egg to come inside of it. 

Yes - My doctor's DID say to me that I ovulated from the left and it went down the right and how rare this is. I had nurses coming into my appointments hugging me, insanely excited, because they all know what I have been going through and feel that if this insane thing was going to happen to anyone - it deserved to happen to me.   We did not ASSUME anything, I had very regular monitoring appointments and we tracked the follicular growth on both ovaries. I did not have measurable follicles on the right prior to ovulation, and did not have any corpus luteum cysts (basically the eggshell left behind after ovulation that produces progesterone and should go away by the time your period comes) on the right - everything signifying ovulation was on the left side.   

From http://www.ectopic.org.uk/index.php/patients/emotional-impact/life-ectopic-pregnancy-faqs/

 

How can an egg get down the only tube I have when it?s produced on the other side where I have no tube?

Even when a tube has been removed it is usual to leave the ovaries alone. Both ovaries compete each month to produce an egg and usually the one that is pulling ahead in the race continues while the other one gives up (but not always ? sometimes women will ovulate from both ovaries in one cycle or twice from one ovary but these are rare events ? they do explain how we get non-identical twins so there is no disputing it can happen).

We do not fully understand the process of ovulation and we make discoveries about it all the time, most latterly that the tubes and uterus are lined with little receptor cells. It appears that at the point of ovulation these receptor cells are sent a chemical signal which literally ?switches? them on and they emit a signal that attracts a similar receptor in the egg and in the sperm to come and meet in the same place, ie the fallopian tube.

When we ovulate, although the egg is most likely to travel down the nearest tube, there is some evidence to suggest this is not always the case. At the point of ovulation some very delicate structures called the fimbriae begin to move gently creating a slight vacuum to suck the egg toward the end of the tube it is nearest to. So, if you have only one tube then there is only one set of receptors working and one set of fimbriae creating a vacuum and so the egg is much more likely to find its way to that tube, whichever ovary it is produced from.

Conservative estimates suggest that an egg produced on the tubeless side manages to descend the remaining tube around 15 to 20% of the time.

This means that rather than your fertility being halved ? your fertility is probably no different to what it was before your ectopic ? assuming fertility is the ability to produce a fertilisable egg and or quality sperm. If you can do this before ectopic you can almost certainly do it after ectopic, so rather than a reduction of fertility, it is more the case that the opportunity to conceive has been affected but not by half ? by around 30%. Or looking at it another way, it means we have around a 70% opportunity of conception with each cycle, so it?s not all bad news at all! 

 

SO - in conclusion - you are incorrect. It is not impossible for an egg to wind up in the other tube. My right ovary did not spontaneously release eggs, my doctors did not lie to me - I have ovulated from my left ovary and the egg went through the right tube.