Psycho-emotional stress and its impact on the intestine before and after artificial abortion

Abstract

This study explores the psycho-emotional stress and related intestinal symptoms among women of fertile age who underwent an artificial abortion, utilizing a well-defined point-based questionnaire for stress levels and the revised version of the questionnaire for healthcare professionals to evaluate intestinal symptoms. The cohort consisted of 400 participants, with stress levels categorized as low (0–30 points), medium (31–70 points), or high (71+ points) according to the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS). Further, perceived helplessness and perceived self-efficacy were evaluated via negative and positive PSS items, respectively. Findings indicated that most (65.5 %) women experienced high, and 27.5 % — medium stress before an abortion. Notably, pre-abortion stress levels were generally higher compared to those after an abortion. Concurrently, the frequency of bowel symptoms declined after an abortion. A significant relationship was found between pre-abortion bowel symptoms and higher post-abortion PSS scores, and an increase in the perceived helplessness subgroup (p = 0.051, R2 = 0.156; p = 0.029, R2 = 0.138, respectively). Furthermore, higher perceived helplessness scores were linked with increased pre-abortion intestinal symptoms (p = 0.043, R2 = 0.341). The study, however, found no significant correlations between bowel symptoms and the perceived self-efficacy subgroup. These results suggest an association between pre-abortion psychological factors (lower self-efficacy and higher stress levels) and the incidence of intestinal symptoms, thus shedding light on the intersection of psychological and physical well-being in reproductive health contexts. Further research is needed to explore these mechanisms and develop effective support strategies.