If a woman has had her uterus removed but still has her ovaries and tubes, can she still have an ectopic pregnancy? Should she use birth control?

--Beth

An ectopic pregnancy may occur after hysterectomy, but it is incredibly uncommon. There are only 36 reports in the world's literature; in the United States alone, more than 400,000 hysterectomies are performed annually. Most of the reported cases (24 of the 36 described cases) happened immediately after the hysterectomy, apparently because an already fertilized egg was in transit down the fallopian tubes at the time of the surgery. Because pregnancy tests do not register until the fertilized egg has implanted (6-10 days after conception), even a pregnancy test done immediately before a hysterectomy will not pick up such cases.

Because the chance of an ectopic pregnancy occurring after a hysterectomy is so uncommon, there is no need to use any form of contraception afterwards. Of course, a hysterectomy does not protect one from sexually transmitted diseases, so condoms must still be used in a new or nonmonogamous sexual relationship!