Adverse Events With Medical Abortion Similar in Adolescent and Adult Females

Medical abortion using mifepristone alone or with prostaglandins is becoming a common practice with adult females and adolescent girls.

With an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies, the risk of complications of this procedure in the adolescent subgroup needs to be especially assessed and compared with that in adult females.

How can Miscarriage be Treated?
Complete abortion requires no treatment. D&C is done in cases of missed or incomplete abortion.

Keeping this in mind, a study was carried out which compared the risk of side effects of medical abortions between adolescents and adult females in Finland during the 2000 – 2006 time period. The study used data from the National Abortion Register. Incidence of short – term complications like bleeding, infection, incomplete abortion, need for surgical evacuation, psychiatric morbidity, injury, increased clot formation, and death were noted. The study observed that between the years 2000 and 2006, around 3024 adolescents and 24 006 adults had undergone one medical abortion at the least.

The risk for complications like bleeding, incomplete abortion and the need for subsequent surgical evacuation were significantly higher in the adult female group as compared to the adolescent group.

The authors also found that the risk of infection post-medical abortion was not related to the presence of Chlamydia in the genital tract.

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The most significant jeopardizing entity responsible for infection, incomplete abortion and surgical evacuation was found to be gestational duration.

To conclude, medical abortion was found to be a safe option in adolescent females when compared with adults, since the adverse aftermaths associated with medical abortion were found to be identical or less in adolescent girls as compared to adult females.

Mifepristone

This medication is a synthetic steroid, used alone or together with another medication, to end an early pregnancy (within 7 weeks of the start of a woman's last menstrual period). It blocks the hormone needed for pregnancy to continue. It is also indicated for high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) in adults with endogenous Cushing’s syndrome.

Source:

The study-“Comparison of rates of adverse events in adolescent and adult women undergoing medical abortion: population register based study.” was conducted by Mark J Bolland, Andrew Grey, Alison Avenell, Greg D Gamble, and Ian R Reid. It was published in BMJ2011; 342:d2111 doi:10.1136/bmj.d2111; 20^th April 2011.

‘Allow GPs To Prescribe Abortion Drugs To Save Women From Counterfeit Drugs’
General Practitioners may be allowed to prescribe well-known abortion drugs like Mifepristone and Misoprotol in order to save women from counterfeit drugs, stresses an Australian researcher.

Source-Medindia