Pregnancy Following “Permanent” Contraception

In a prior analysis of insurance claims, researchers showed that contraceptive failure was more common following hysteroscopic than laparoscopic sterilization (1.02 vs. 0.88 pregnancies per 100 person-years in a population that included women who did or did not undergo confirmatory hysterosalpingograms). Now, these researchers have examined specific obstetric outcomes following sterilization failure in a retrospective cohort study of 817 privately insured women.

Rates of spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, and preterm birth were similar regardless of approach to sterilization. However, ectopic pregnancy and trophoblastic disease were more common following laparoscopic sterilization, while live birth was more common after hysteroscopic steriliz…