Ectopic pregnancy: Are fair-colored women at increased risk?

Abstract

Ectopic pregnancies complicate 1-2% of pregnancies and are potentially fatal as rupture causes severe intra-peritoneal haemorrhage. Both major and minor risk factors have been known for several years. These include damage to the fallopian tubes following previous pelvic infections and tubal surgery. Being fair colored in black women has been suspected to be a risk factor in Ghana for several years despite this not being found in any literature search. A matched case controlled study conducted in Ghana to ascertain this found a highly significant association between ectopic pregnancy and fair skin complexion (p < 0.001 at 95% confidence intervals) irrespective of whether the fairness is natural or artificially induced with skin bleaching creams and soaps. The study found no association between ectopic pregnancy and previous pelvic surgery (p= 0.389), neither was there any association with lifetime sexual partners (p=0.383), previous pelvic infections (p= 0.389) or previous termination of pregnancy (p-value 0.485).