Elective pregnancy termination in a large cohort of women with hyperemesis gravidarum
Poursharif, B.; Korst, L.M.; Macgibbon, K.W.; Fejzo, M.S.; Romero, R.; Goodwin, T.M.
Contraception 76(6): 451-455
2007
ISSN/ISBN: 0010-7824 PMID: 18061703 DOI: 10.1016/j.contraception.2007.08.009Document Number: 197920
This study was conducted to describe characteristics of women who terminated their pregnancies secondary to hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). Data were obtained from a survey provided on an HG Web site from 2003 to 2005. Of 808 women who completed the survey, 123 (15.2%) had at least one termination due to HG, and 49 (6.1%) had multiple terminations. Prominent reasons given for the terminations were inability to care for the family and self (66.7%), fear that they or their baby could die (51.2%), or that the baby would be abnormal (22.0%). These same women were three times as likely to state that their health care providers were uncaring or did not understand how sick they were [64/123 (52.0%) vs. 168/685 (24.5%), odds ratio 3.34 (95% CI 2.21-5.05), p<.001]. These data suggest that the physical and psychological burden of HG has been underestimated, and that further education within the medical community may be warranted.
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