Articles: disease.
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Trends of the incidence and mortality associated with ectopic pregnancy (EP) in the United States were examined for 1970 through 1978. The estimated number of EPs rose from 17,800 in 1970 to 42,400 in 1978, and the EP incidence rate rose from 4.5 per 1,000 reported pregnancies to 9.4 during the same time period. ⋯ Over 2.5% of all reported pregnancies among nonwhite women aged 35 to 44 years were ectopic. The death-to-case rate for EP declined almost 75% during the study period but remained consistently higher for nonwhite women as compared with white women.
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Comparative Study
Mortality associated with fertility and fertility control: 1983.
This analysis demonstrates that levels of mortality associated with all major methods of fertility control (tubal sterilization, the pill, IUD, condom, diaphragm, spermicides, rhythm and abortion) are low in comparison with the risk of death associated with childbirth and ectopic pregnancy when no fertility control method is used. The exceptions are the risks associated with pill use after the age of 40 for women who do not smoke, and with pill use after the age of 35 for smokers. The safest approach to fertility control is to use the condom and to back it up by abortion in case of method failure. ⋯ As noted earlier, there are few women who make their contraceptive choices solely on the basis of perceived risk of mortality. Very few, for example, would consider abortion as a primary method of birth control; and for many, abortion would not be acceptable even as a backup for failed contraception. Although the risk of mortality resulting from use of the IUD is low, many women who have not yet had children might not want to face the increased risk of infertility problems from pelvic inflammatory disease that have been associated with use of this method.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)