In the past 12 years, the number of women diagnosed with ectopic pregnancies has trebled. JO HAYWOOD talks to a York woman who thought this was a rare condition - until it happened to her.

SUE Hayes was happy, healthy and busy planning her Valentine's Day wedding when disaster struck. She suspected she was pregnant - she already had three children from her previous marriage and had suffered several miscarriages - and decided to go to her doctor for confirmation.

"I felt quite unwell after walking home from the doctor's to wait for the test results," she says. "I went for a nap and the next thing I know everything was covered in blood. My first thought was that it was another miscarriage."

A scan at York Hospital indicated the pregnancy was progressing normally, although the doctor said he could not detect a heartbeat.

"He said scanning wasn't his proper job and he was only covering because it was the weekend," says Sue, who was about nine weeks pregnant at the time. "It wasn't his fault, but he didn't exactly fill me with confidence."

She was told to return for a further scan in two weeks. But, when she went back to her Foxwood home, things went from bad to worse.

"I just kept bleeding," says Sue. "This wasn't like a miscarriage. I was in agony and felt absolutely drained because of the blood loss. I was a hairdresser's apprentice at the time so I was on my feet all day. Then when I did get some rest I would wake up covered in blood."

A second scan showed there was nothing in her womb. Sue assumed she had suffered a miscarriage and was surprised when she was told she needed an endoscopy to investigate a worrying shadow on one of her fallopian tubes.

She signed a form giving doctors permission to operate if anything was found and was wheeled off to theatre for what was supposed to be an hour-long procedure. Three hours later she was told she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy and the foetus, which had been growing outside her womb, had been removed.

"I had heard of the condition before but, to be honest, I had always skimmed over that section in the baby books because I assumed it was rare and would not happen to me," says Sue. "At the time I was told one pregnancy in 250 was ectopic and, because I had suffered one, my chances of suffering another were now one in 25."

That was nine years ago. New statistics show that one in 100 pregnancies is now ectopic, affecting more than 10,000 women a year. About ten women die from the condition every year and of those who survive many need invasive surgery which can damage or destroy their fertility.

Sue was one of the lucky ones. But she didn't feel like it at the time.

"I was absolutely gutted," she says. "The baby wasn't planned, but it was very much wanted. It took me a long time to recover physically and mentally."

She was, however, determined to enjoy her wedding, despite medical advice that she should cancel. She was released from hospital just a week before her big day and picked up her plans where she and her fianc Lee had left them.

But more bad news was to come. On the day she returned home to her children Michelle, now 17, Leanne, 14, and Lee, 12, her father phoned to say he had cancer and would not be able to attend the wedding. He died two months later.

"It was a terrible time in my life," says Sue.

"I was completely shattered by it all. And it's still difficult now because when I think of my wedding, I also think about losing the baby and my dad."

According to the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, about 65 per cent of women who suffer an ectopic pregnancy will become pregnant again within 18 months - like the Countess of Wessex who suffered an ectopic pregnancy in 2001 and lost a baby at six weeks, then successfully gave birth to a daughter late last year.

Sue was determined to try again when her scars began to heal, but Lee, now her husband, was less sure.

"He really wanted his own child, but he was very scared that he might lose me and the baby next time," she says. "He wasn't sure it was worth the risk, but I was."

Sue fell pregnant again on their first anniversary and, after a brief scare at 14 weeks when a heartbeat could not be detected, she gave birth to Billy, now seven.

"I was ecstatic," she says. "All babies are special, but when you go through a life-threatening condition and come out the other side with a baby in your arms, it's extra-special."

According to the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, the trebling in ectopic pregnancies in the past decade corresponds to a sharp rise in sexually transmitted infections which damage the fallopian tubes, although this wasn't the case with Sue.

With this in mind, co-founder of the trust Jane Griffiths MP, who nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy in 1992, tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons just last week calling for measures to tackle the problem, including more screening for the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia.

There are a number of potential triggers for the condition, but similar action in Sweden has resulted in a dramatic fall in the number of ectopic pregnancies.

Sue applauds the Reading MP's call for action but believes the only way to get the message across effectively is to make it part of the school sex education curriculum.

"Women shouldn't be reading about this when they are already pregnant," she says.

"They don't want to read about the bad stuff that can happen, but they need to know the symptoms. They should be armed with the information much earlier in life.

"It's all too easy for people to assume this is a rare condition, but I know how wrong that assumption is."

Updated: 11:34 Thursday, February 12, 2004