Purpose: Approximately 21 days after an abortion, ovulation occurs in 50 % of women. Installation of an IUD directly after induced or spontaneous abortion offers immediate contraceptive protection. The purpose of the present study was to weigh up contraceptive safety and adverse reactions of IUD inserted directly after first-trimester abortion under general or paracervical anesthesia as against the fitting of IUD in the days of the next menstrual cycle without anesthesia.
Method: During the period May 1987 to October 2010, 73 women (Group A) underwent an immediate post-abortion insertion IUD after a first-trimester spontaneous or induced abortion under general or local paracervical anesthesia and 69 participants (Group B) received IUD during the next menstrual cycle without anesthesia. Questionnaires were completed by all the women of the study with respect to the effects of IUD. The women were examined every 3 months for 1 year after the fitting of the IUD in the out-patient department of the University Obstetrics Gynecological Department of Alexandroupolis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
Results: The demographic characteristics of the women of the two groups were similar. The age of the women ranged between 19 and 44 years, while 61.98 % were women with one or two children and 38.02 % were women with three or more children. During the first menstrual cycles, with the exception of vaginal hemorrhages (5 %) and adnexitis (1 %), no serious adverse reactions were noted. During the transvaginal ultrasonography checks in both groups, no observation was made of any dislocation of the IUD, except for two cases in the subgroup of those women with paracervical anesthesia and one case in the women of Group B. As concerns the questionnaire with regard to the women's subjective evaluation of IUD, satisfactory answers were given.
Conclusions: There were no differences between the two groups either with respect to the security of the supplied contraceptive methods or to the development of side effects.