Elizabeth Kough became pregnant and gave birth despite having had both of her fallopian tubes completely removed years earlier.
Medical professionals regard such pregnancies as extremely rare, and Kough’s story highlights just how unpredictable human biology can be.
Elizabeth Kough, a mother of three, underwent a bilateral salpingectomy—a surgical procedure removing both fallopian tubes—about three years before her pregnancy. This operation is usually considered a nearly foolproof method of contraception, as the fallopian tubes typically provide the pathway for eggs to reach the uterus for fertilization. Removing them is also a preventative measure against ovarian cancer for some women.
Surprised by the positive pregnancy test, Kough immediately sought hospital care. An ultrasound confirmed that the fetus was growing safely inside her uterus, not in her abdominal cavity, as she had feared. In March 2019, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Benjamin at North Kansas City Hospital.
Doctors verified through medical records and pathology reports that Kough's fallopian tubes were indeed fully removed, making natural conception highly unlikely. The most accepted explanation involves a rare process called "transperitoneal migration," where an egg released from the ovary could travel across the abdominal cavity and reach the uterus via a tiny opening where the tubes once connected, allowing fertilization to occur.