Abortions on demand in adolescents
Porozhanova, V.; Atanasova, P.; Goranov, M.
Akusherstvo i Ginekologiia 33(2): 20-23
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0324-0959 PMID: 7485771 Document Number: 298565
The psychological status, contraceptive use, sexual behavior, attitude to abortion, and abortion complications were assessed in 463 13-17 year old girls who had undergone voluntary abortion between 1988 and 1993 at the department of obstetrics and gynecology in Pleven, Bulgaria. They were compared with a control group of 100 single women aged 20-24 years. 213 (46%) of the adolescents in the case group were 17 years old and only 42 (9.07%) were 13 years old. In the control group 37% were 20 years old and only 3% were 24 years old. The number of abortions amounted to 46 (2.34%) out of a total of 1963 abortions performed in 1993. In comparison, the adolescent abortion rate was 2.46% in 1988, 3.62% in 1989, 1.56% in 1990, 2.07% in 1991, and 2.27% in 1992. The reasons for wanting an abortion were: desire to grow up and self-development (35.4%), unsuitable partner (26.2%), problems with the partner (18.1%), and problems with parents (20.3%). These adolescents knew and used mainly contraceptives of low efficacy: condoms (10.58%), coitus interruptus (11.45%), natural methods (6.7%), and vaginal douching. Methods of higher efficacy were also used: the IUD by 25 (5.4%) and oral contraceptives by 37 (7.99%). 57.88% of them did not use any contraception. Vacuum aspiration was done in 365 cases (78.83%) in the adolescent group and in 69% of the adult group. In the studied population in 49 instances the pregnancy was in 16-20 weeks of gestation (10.58%) and thus abortion was mainly carried out according to the method of Aburel (8.85%). Medical complications of abortions were: 3 cases of complicated uterine perforations in girls under 15 years of age with gestations over 10 weeks (.65%), and acute endometritis (9.29%) in pregnancies over 16-20 weeks of gestation requiring hospitalization. There was also an increasing trend of deliveries among them. The undesirability of abortions among adolescents should be solved by adequate sex education and by the wider use of effective contraceptives.