Self-Assessment of Medical Abortion Outcome using Symptoms and Home Pregnancy Testing
- Published
- April 1st, 2018
- Type
- Publication
- Topic
- Medication Abortion
- Authors
- Raymond EG, Tan YL, Grant M, Benavides E, Reis M, Sacks DN, Hannum C, Frapp S, Weaver MA
Contraception; April 1,2018; Vol. 97(4):324-328; doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2017.12.004
Objectives: We aimed to evaluate compliance with a strategy to enable medical abortion patients to assess treatment outcome on their own and decide whether to seek clinical follow-up.
Study design: We enrolled women undergoing medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol at three clinics in the United States. Each participant was instructed to perform a multilevel pregnancy test (MLPT) 7 days after mifepristone ingestion and to contact the clinic immediately if the test indicated a possible ongoing pregnancy or if specified symptoms occurred. A telephone call was scheduled 14 days after mifepristone ingestion to evaluate participants who had not contacted the clinic earlier.
Results: Of the 343 enrolled participants, 90 (26%) did not provide sufficient follow-up information for analysis of compliance with instructions. Of the 253 (74%) who did, 218 (86%) implemented the self-assessment strategy as instructed, 20 (7.9%) failed to report a non-reassuring MLPT result, 4 (1.6%) failed to promptly report symptoms that the study clinician subsequently judged to require evaluation, and 11 (4.3%) did not perform the MLPT. We ascertained abortion outcomes for 239 (70%) of the enrolled women, of whom 3 were diagnosed with ongoing pregnancies. One other participant was hospitalized for bleeding. All 4 women had implemented the strategy correctly. Of the 219 enrolled participants (64%) who provided opinions, 170 (78%) indicated that most could use the MLPT to decide whether they're "OK" after an abortion. We did not ascertain opinions from 124 enrolled participants (36%).
Conclusions: At least two thirds of enrolled participants correctly implemented a strategy using symptom evaluation and a MLPT to assess their own medical abortion outcomes. No ongoing pregnancies occurred in women documented not to have implemented the strategy as intended. Perceived feasibility of the self-assessment approach was high. Implications Statement The common practice of scheduling a clinical contact after every medical abortion may not be necessary to ensure safety; enabling patients to determine for themselves whether or not a contact is needed can be a reasonable approach.