Woman who experienced two ectopic pregnancies hopes new drug trial could help others avoid surgery
ITV Wales journalist Issa Farfour reports
A woman who was 'minutes away from dying' after experiencing two ectopic pregnancies is hoping that a new treatment drug will prevent other women going through the same experience.
Researchers hope a trial of a new drug for the treatment of ectopic pregnancy could help hundreds of women every year avoid emergency surgery.
About one in 80 pregnancies is ectopic, which means the embryo starts to grow in the wrong place, often outside the uterus and usually in one of the Fallopian tubes.
As it grows, there is a risk that the Fallopian tube can burst which can lead to life-threatening internal bleeding.
When this happens, emergency surgery to remove the affected Fallopian tube is usually necessary.
Helen Corsi-Cadmore, 43, from Cardiff, experienced two ectopic pregnancies before having twins four years ago using IVF.
She said: “The first ectopic pregnancy I had ended up with a ruptured Fallopian tube. I was minutes away from dying. I had lots of internal bleeding.
"I didn't know what ectopic pregnancy was at the time - never even heard of it let alone realise what my body was about to go through.
"The trauma of getting over the fact that not only had I lost my pregnancy but also I had to have emergency surgery.
"I lost the tube. This was extremely hard for me – I felt like I had to learn to walk and live again all in one go, whilst trying to heal both physically and mentally."
Two years later, Helen experienced another ectopic pregnancy, where she lost her remaining fallopian tube.
"The situation I was in was that I'd lost both my fallopian tubes, I'd lost my chance of any natural fertility and I had to learn to deal with things that I never expected to have to deal with just trying to start a family."
The £1.6 million trial, led by the University of Aberdeen, will investigate whether a drug called mifepristone is more effective at treating ectopic pregnancy than the current medical treatment.
Helen is a project co-ordinator at the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust – one of the organisations feeding into the trial, and welcomed the research.
"One of the reasons that I'm so passionate about this valuable trial that's starting is to potentially help people like me so that they potentially don't have to have surgery. It can be medically managed in another way and I'm really excited about that opportunity for other people", she said.
The trial, funded by a Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) partnership, will be led by Dr Andrea Woolner, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Aberdeen.
She said: “Ectopic pregnancy is a devastating pregnancy loss which has significant physical and psychological impacts on women and their families, and the medical management of ectopic pregnancy has essentially had no advances in over 20 years.
“This is a really exciting opportunity to trial an additional drug alongside standard treatment for medical management of ectopic pregnancy.
“During the course of this trial, we plan to recruit women who are eligible for medical treatment of ectopic pregnancy across 40 early pregnancy units in the UK.
“We strongly believe that the addition of mifepristone to standard treatment could reduce the need for emergency surgery.”
More recently, improved diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy has meant that some women can be treated with medication which reduces the need for surgery.
However, with current medical treatment, up to 30% of women will still require emergency surgery and removal of their Fallopian tube.
The research team hope the trial will demonstrate that treatment with mifepristone, which works by blocking progesterone, a key hormone of pregnancy; alongside the existing drug treatment, methotrexate, will reduce the need for emergency surgery for many women.
The NHS Inform website states that, unfortunately, it is not possible to save an ectopic pregnancy.
The trial is due to start later this year across the UK and results are expected in 2027.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We welcome any research that aims to help and ease the devastating physical and mental impacts of pregnancy loss.
"This is a very important trial, and once available, we will consider the details to decide whether the trial will open in Wales.”
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