chronic

Last reviewed 09/2023

Unruptured ectopic pregnancies are extremely variable in their presentation:

• most patients are afebrile
• abdominal pain is moderate, intermittent and usually unilateral
• 90% have abdominal tenderness
• pain on defaecation (due to blood in the pouch of Douglas)
• positive rebound tenderness is uncommon
• pelvic examination reveals a palpable adnexal mass in 50% of cases, in half of which, it occurs contralateral to the ectopic pregnancy, representing the corpus luteum
• the uterus is usually soft and of normal size or only moderately enlarged