Women deciding to take medication that causes termination of their pregnancy are often told the procedure will be no more painful than menstrual cramps, according to a British study.
- After being told that the pain of medical abortion was comparable to that of menstruation, 48.5% of women said the pain they felt was worse than expected.
- They are therefore unprepared for the intensity of the pain felt and some respondents indicated that they would have chosen another option if they had known.
- More realistic and pain-focused information needs to be provided to enable women to make an informed choice.
If a woman decides to abort, two options are available to her: instrumental abortion, which is based on dilation of the cervix and evacuation of the uterine contents by aspiration, and medical abortion, which consists of taking medications causing abortion. termination of pregnancy and expulsion of the embryo. The second is the most common, because it avoids surgery and anesthesia and can be carried out at home. However, this method also has disadvantages. She “occurs over several days, can cause significant bleeding, cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea and pain”, noted Health Insurance.
Therefore, patients must be well informed and advised on their management so as not to be afraid and anxious. But is this really the case? To find out, researchers from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (United Kingdom) conducted a study. As part of the work, the team recruited 11,906 women, aged 20 to 39, who had undergone a medical abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Between November 2021 and March 2022, 1,596 volunteers completed an online questionnaire about pain, method preference, abortion experience, counseling, and how they would describe the pain they felt to a friend.
Abortion: “The commonly used analogy with painful periods” is “misleading”
About half (48.5%) of patients reported that the pain they felt was worse than expected, with most (92%) rating their pain at least four out of a maximum of 10. In total, 662 (41.5%) rated it 8 to 10, i.e. severe pain.
Many people interviewed felt unprepared for the intensity of the pain they felt. These latter “found the commonly used analogy with painful periods misleading”, can we read in the results published in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health. They also attributed this poor pain management to the lack of detailed and realistic advice to be able to anticipate it. “The pain was so much worse than period pain, it was like having contractions during labor. I’ve given birth three times and the pain wasn’t really much different from contractions,” reported one participant.
“Pain experiences impact method preference.” Indeed, if 1,047 of the patients declared that they would choose a medical abortion if necessary in the future, 202 said that they would resort to a surgical abortion. And most of them, more specifically 167, cited pain as a factor in this decision.
More detailed and realistic information on abortion to be able to make the right choice
According to the data, women surveyed recommended providing accurate and realistic information about pain, as this is important in preparing for medical abortion. “Being transparent might deter some women from seeking abortion, but I believe patients have the right to fully understand the risks and benefits to make an informed decision,” said one of the volunteers interviewed.
