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Safe abortion methods

by | Dec 22, 2019 | Abortion, myths and stigma, Clinical practice, Reproductive health, Safe Abortion

There are two safe abortion procedures, endorsed and recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of Gynecobstetrics and Obstetrics (FIGO), for their high efficacy rates. Both procedures make it possible to terminate unplanned or unwanted pregnancies safely, ensuring the well-being, health and, in many cases, social justice of those who have recourse to it.

 

One of them is medical abortion, that is, the ingestion of tablets (using the correct dosage and substances) to induce abortion safely (before 12 weeks of gestation), by stimulating contractions in the uterus and dilation of the cervix, simultaneously, which allows evacuation in the days following the intake.

 

Percentage of efficiency. Medical abortion, when used at the recommended dose, during the first 12 weeks of gestation, has an efficacy rate of 95% to 98% with the combined regimen (misoprostol and mifepristone). Whereas, when misoprostol alone is used at the same gestational age, it has an efficacy rate of 85%.
Among its advantages is that it is a non-invasive procedure, which can be used at home, ideally with the accompaniment of trained personnel, especially to ensure that the procedure is concluded correctly, without emHowever, this accompaniment is not indispensable once the woman has the correct information.

The other method is vacuum aspiration. It is the procedure of first choice recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of Gynecobstetrics and Obstetrics (FIGO) as a modern, versatile, safe and effective technique to remove the contents of the uterus within the first 12 weeks of gestation. Uterine evacuation is performed by means of a vacuum aspiration device, manual or electric, which has a design similar to that of a syringe.

 

Percentage of efficiency. This method is 98% effective when the procedure is performed within the first 12 weeks of gestation, with trained personnel and the correct equipment.
Among its advantages are that it is an outpatient procedure, i.e., it does not require hospitalization or admission to the operating room, does not require general anesthesia and concludes or is resolved once the clinical maneuver is completed. This must beThe procedure must be performed by trained personnel, including professionals in general medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, nursing or midwifery.

On the other hand, both methods are recommended to replace the Instrumental Intrauterine Curettage (IUCD ) or uterine curettage, since this is no longer a procedure endorsed by the World Health Organization.

In a retrospective case series of 80,437 women seeking induced abortion, vacuum aspiration was associated with less than half the rate of major and minor complications compared to LUI (Grimes, Schulz, Cates Jr., & Tyler, 1976). In another more recent series, which included more than 100,000 abortion procedures, LUI performed alone or in combination with vacuum aspiration was found to be significantly more likely to be associated with complications, particularly incomplete abortion, than vacuum aspiration without curettage (Sekiguchi, Ikeda, Okamura, & Nakai, 2015).

If you want to learn more about the recommended dosages to provide a safe abortion procedure with medications or with vacuum aspirationIf you would like to learn more about the recommended doses to provide a safe medical or vacuum aspiration abortion procedure, access our materials created for healthcare professionals to guide clinical practice and ensure safe procedures for women.

In this video you will learn from an expert about the advantages of MVA over LUI. If you want to know more about safe and legal abortion, we invite you to visit our page for health professionals: http://profesionalesdelasalud.ipasmexico.org/