Despite a lot of females looking for medical abortion usually undergo an ultrasound scan, a new study is indicating that this procedure may not necessary for them. The findings of the study were published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Medical abortion is usually carried out by giving the pregnant female a dose of mifepristone and then another one of misoprostol. This type of abortion in conducted in the United States within nine weeks of a female's last menstruation.
However, there are no official documents or guidelines stating that pregnant females should have an ultrasound scan before carrying on with the medical abortion. But the procedure is carried out usually to determine the stage of pregnancy in a female. During the study, researchers from the Gynuity Health Projects, in New York, reviewed data coming from 4,484 pregnant females, who were seeking medical abortion, in 1 of 10 family planning clinics. The women gave information about the date of their last period, they had physical examinations and underwent ultrasound scans. The study aimed to assess the possibility of using physical check up on a woman combined with her estimation of the time of her last menstruation to determine if she was eligible for a medical abortion in her early stages of pregnancy or not.
Researchers noted that by using physical exams and dates of last periods, medical abortion would have been carried out after nine weeks for only 1.6% of the females; the majority of these women were within the 11th week of their last periods. Researchers added that there was no risk or complication associated with medical abortions in that stage of pregnancy. Dr. Hillary Bracken, from the Gynuity Health Projects and the lead author of the study, said that the results of the research showed that physicians and gynecologists who do not have ultrasound devices can still perform medical abortions with no risk of complications. She also added that this means that medical abortion can be conducted in higher rates in rural areas in the US and other developing countries were no ultrasound systems are available.
