There's reassuring news for women who have had an ectopic pregnancy: A new randomized study from Europe has found that a woman's fertility will be intact no matter which type of treatment she receives following her pregnancy complication, whether she has conservative or radical surgery, or whether she is treated with medication.

The study, published online today in the European journal Human Reproduction, followed more than 400 women over four years from 17 different medical centers across France. Researchers divided the women into two groups: those women who weren't in danger of their fallopian tube rupturing and therefore were candidates for treatment with medication, and those women who were in danger of having their tube rupture and therefore had to be treated surgically. The scientists then compared three ways of treating an ectopic pregnancy: medically by methotrexate injection, conservative surgery to preserve the fallopian tube, and radical surgery, which removes the fallopian tube. They found that there was no significant difference in fertility two years later between medical treatment and conservative surgery, or between conservative and radical surgery for ectopic pregnancies that required surgical intervention.

Women in the study became pregnant again 67 percent of the time after medical treatment, 71 percent after conservative surgery, and 64 percent after radical surgery — differences that are not considered to be statistically significant. Normal pregnancy rates in the general population among women who have not had an ectopic pregnancy are around 84 to 89 percent.

Researchers say these results will help inform women about which treatment option is best, and that for someone with a less-active ectopic pregnancy (in other words, one without danger of tube rupture), the best treatment route might be medication, since there's no difference in subsequent fertility and because it entails fewer surgical-related risks.

That said, in cases where surgery may be necessary, these findings will help reassure hopeful moms-to-be that their fertility will not be negatively affected, and that there is no difference in subsequent fertility no matter what treatment path they take. Which means that for all women, odds are good that an ectopic pregnancy will soon be followed by a healthy one.