The entrepreneur Carolina Sloty, 28, was just 15 years old when she had to have her tube and right ovary removed after discovering a tumor. Even so, nine years later, without planning, she became pregnant with her firstborn, Aya.
Carolina reports that she went to the gynecologist as a teenager because she felt severe cramps and had started her first serious relationship. “When the doctor examined me, she laughed and said she couldn’t give me medicine if I was already pregnant. I immediately started crying,” she recalls.
The specialist advised Carolina to perform a beta HCG test to confirm the pregnancy and an ultrasound. The next day, during the imaging exam, the entrepreneur discovered that she was not expecting a baby, which was a relief. However, the mass that the gynecologist had felt was a tumor, which was already approximately the size of an orange.
“Initially, it would be a simple surgery, via laparoscopy. But it didn’t work and the doctor had to open it. When I went to get the stitches removed, my blood pressure dropped. He told me to stop being so lazy and that, if I thought about getting pregnant, it would be more difficult from that moment on or I wouldn’t even be able to get pregnant at all,” he says.
Carolina needed to receive hormone replacement therapy for four months after the surgery and, to this day, receives medical follow-up every six months. The main change she felt after the surgical procedure was in relation to her menstrual cycle. In addition to taking time to regularize, the bleeding became less intense and shorter. But even so, the entrepreneur continued to ovulate normally.
At 24 years old, the surprise came. At the time, she was already with her current husband and, without planning, she became pregnant with Aya after the condom broke during a relationship. Currently, the firstborn is already four years old.
Carolina reports that the weight loss process she experienced from the age of 18 was important to have a better quality of life, including the pregnancy that occurred later. She weighed around 90 kilos when she underwent nutritional re-education associated with physical exercise.
Before weight loss, the entrepreneur had cysts on her left ovary, thyroid and breasts. When I lost weight, the nodules disappeared.
Why is it possible to get pregnant even after removing an ovary and a tube?
The gynecologist and obstetrician Juliana Schablatura Seea, from the Parto com Amor clinic, explains that when the tube and ovary that were not removed are on the same side and healthy, the woman’s chance of getting pregnant is the same as someone who has both tubes and both ovaries.
“This happens because the remaining ovary assumes the complete function of ovulation and the remaining tube will guide the egg to meet the sperm”, he explains. The specialist also clarifies that, if the tube and ovary removed are the opposite, the chance of getting pregnant is much lower. But still, it exists.
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It is worth knowing that the tubes function as channels that connect the uterus to the ovaries, being responsible for capturing the egg and carrying the sperm to it. Then, the fertilized egg is directed to the uterine cavity.
“The ovaries are responsible for releasing the egg and producing hormones that will maintain the pregnancy in the first months until the placenta takes on this function”, adds the obstetrician.
