Demography, clinical profile and outcomes of self-prescribed abortion pills among women, experience from a tertiary care teaching hospital in central India

Abstract

Background: Medical abortion pills have revolutionised the freedom of woman in her decision for abortion. Due to self-medication of these drugs by pregnant women without any medical consultation or supervision has become very common. This study was carried out to study the analyse the effect of unsupervised self-prescription abortion pill in women attending tertiary care centre. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted among patients with history of unsupervised intake of medical abortion pill. After written and informed consent socio-epidemiological factors like age, marital status, education status, residence and family were counselled. Obstetric history was noted, source of procurement, reason behind the pill intake, time duration since the pill intake to presentation, gestational age at time of pill consumption, the regime followed and complaint at presentation to health care facility were noted. Final outcome in the form of any medical measures and treatment or surgical intervention done was noted. Results: In present study, most of the patients (52%) belongs to 18-24 years of age group. Based on ultrasonography (USG) findings and clinical examination 70% of patient had incomplete abortion, 22% had complete abortion, 1.3% had incomplete abortion with shock, 3.3% ectopic pregnancy had incomplete abortion with sepsis and 1.3% had incomplete abortion with shock. Conclusions: When abortion performed under medical supervision, medical abortion is both effective and safe. To regulate and restrict the over-the-counter sale of abortion pills, strict law is essential, and public access to abortion pills should be limited to MTP-licensed centres.