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Does Abortion Affect Future Pregnancy?
Question: After an abortion, is there an effect on future pregancy?
Brief Answer:
depends on reason for abortion
Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX and welcome to HCM,
I am Dr Madhuri a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist and will be helping you with your queries.
The answer to your question depends upon what was the type of abortion. If the abortion was induced purposefully as we call it medical termination of pregnancy just because the couple do not want a child and the procedure was uneventful, then usually there is no problem in future pregnancies.
If the abortion occured spontaneously then there must have been some or the other reason for it. Most common causes are defects in the baby. Most of these defects are not recurrent and so future pregnancies go along well. If the defects are recurrent then the there is a chance of abortions occuring repeatedly. Other causes are infections and trauma which are generally non recurrent. There are a special group of infections called the TORCH group that are associated more with abortions than other women. Also certain conditions like problems within the immune system [ diseases like SLE, APL, ITP] etc may also cause recurrent abortions. Hormonal problems like thyroid defects, diabetes also lead to abortions.
The reason I explain all of this is because, if the cause is recurrent then future pregnancies will have problems. If the cause is non recurrent then future pregnancies will not be affected.
We generally do not investigate a woman for a single abortion as most of the time the cause is non recurrent. Just exercising extra caution the next time, taking prenatal vitamins properly and supplementing hormones during pregnancy helps in most cases. If there are 3 or more spontaneous abortions then all the causes need to be looked into and management is directed towards cause.
So a woman with one abortion need not worry. Just get the basic tests like blood sugar and TORCH done. If they are recurrent then further investigation is needed.
Hope this satisfies your query.
Thanks for using HCM.
Feel free to ask any more questions that you may have.
Dr Madhuri Bagde
Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist
depends on reason for abortion
Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX and welcome to HCM,
I am Dr Madhuri a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist and will be helping you with your queries.
The answer to your question depends upon what was the type of abortion. If the abortion was induced purposefully as we call it medical termination of pregnancy just because the couple do not want a child and the procedure was uneventful, then usually there is no problem in future pregnancies.
If the abortion occured spontaneously then there must have been some or the other reason for it. Most common causes are defects in the baby. Most of these defects are not recurrent and so future pregnancies go along well. If the defects are recurrent then the there is a chance of abortions occuring repeatedly. Other causes are infections and trauma which are generally non recurrent. There are a special group of infections called the TORCH group that are associated more with abortions than other women. Also certain conditions like problems within the immune system [ diseases like SLE, APL, ITP] etc may also cause recurrent abortions. Hormonal problems like thyroid defects, diabetes also lead to abortions.
The reason I explain all of this is because, if the cause is recurrent then future pregnancies will have problems. If the cause is non recurrent then future pregnancies will not be affected.
We generally do not investigate a woman for a single abortion as most of the time the cause is non recurrent. Just exercising extra caution the next time, taking prenatal vitamins properly and supplementing hormones during pregnancy helps in most cases. If there are 3 or more spontaneous abortions then all the causes need to be looked into and management is directed towards cause.
So a woman with one abortion need not worry. Just get the basic tests like blood sugar and TORCH done. If they are recurrent then further investigation is needed.
Hope this satisfies your query.
Thanks for using HCM.
Feel free to ask any more questions that you may have.
Dr Madhuri Bagde
Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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