Pregnancy scare 16 years after tubal.

Hi Tippikincaid and thanks for your question.

You're very articulate for someone under such stress - let's see if we can help.

As you know, when a woman has a tubal ligation, the fallopian tubes are cut or blocked to permanently prevent pregnancy. A tubal ligation disrupts the movement of the egg to the uterus for fertilization and blocks sperm from traveling up the fallopian tubes to the egg. 

Women who have had a tubal ligation can develop an ectopic pregnancy. This is a fertilized egg that has planted itself outside the uterus.

This type of pregnancy can be very dangerous for the mother and unborn child. When the fetus starts to develop in organs other than the uterus, the organ is stretched until it bursts, which causes severe bleeding. Normally, with ectopic pregnancies live birth does not occur.

Symptoms include the following:

Abdominal pain
Absence of menstrual pain
Vaginal bleeding or intermittent bleeding (spotting)
Breast tenderness
Nausea
Vomiting
Frequent urination
Dizziness or fainting (caused by blood loss)
Low blood pressure (cause by blood loss)
Lower back pain

If you think you may be pregnant you really do need to take a home pregnancy test and if the results are positive it would be best to see your healthcare provider as soon as possible.

Hope this helps,

Pam