Induced abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy and pregnancy outcome in subsequent pregnancy in teenagers

Introduction: Pregnancy in adolescents is a public health problem for both the mother and the infant worldwide. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the pregnancy outcome in repeat pregnancy cases of teenagers, who underwent induced abortion in the first trimester.

Population and method: In the time from January 2007 to December 2015 one hundred seventy five teenagers, aged 13 – 18 years, who visited the family planning centre in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Democritus University of Thrace were included in the study. At first medical induced abortion was performed in all participants, with the use of four tablets misoprostol vaginaly. A fractional curettage was performed in all cases. Sociodemographic, family, and health factors were examined. Repeat pregnancies and their outcome within the next two years were determined from medical records.

Results: In forty two cases (18.09%) a repeat pregnancy was recorded within 12 months postabortion. In 66.8% (twenty eight) of them the following pregnancy was not disturbed by pain, nausea, vomit, fever, headache, diarrhea and chill did not differed from the cases of adult women abortions (p = 0.771). None of the adolescents presented severe bleeding. Only 8.4% of the patients asked for pain-medication to relieve pain. The pregnancies had an increased rate of preterm labor: 46.5% term labor and 53.5% preterm labor.

Conclusion: According to our results medical and surgical abortions are safe and well tolerated by adolescents as in older reproductive age women, without decreasing the fertility.