Is It Safe To Have Abortion At 5 Weeks Of Pregnancy With History Of Pulmonary Embolism?
abortion possible, with a few risks
Detailed Answer:
Hello. I have been through your question and understand your concern.
There is an informal consent between doctors to prevent abortion, generally speaking. In your case luckily, the reported complication (in the 5th gestational week) is 0.5%. And embolism is not the primary cause of complication, so an eventual abortion in your case makes it extremily low the probability of another pulmonary embolism.
Still, since you experienced a previous episode, you better test before the abortion all the coagulation profile (INR, protein C and S, homocysteine and vein doppler of the extremities).
Still, you can not prevent 100% a second embolism. I mean, even less than 1%, there are some risk you will consider when deciding for the abortion.
Wish you the best health.
Regards. Dr. Geldon Fejzo
Pregnancy carries a higher risk than abortion
Detailed Answer:
Hello. I am sorry about your situation.
Since you had a pulmonary embolism, which is a major event, you are at risk of developing a second one during pregnancy. Warfarin, which is an anticoagulant) is contraindicated in pregnancy, because it is associated with high risks for the baby.
That is why you should not take the risk of a second embolism which can be pulmonary or somewhere else.
I explained before the risks of the abortion, which are quite low, respect to the risk of an embolism during pregnancy.
But, if you should decide to continue with the pregnancy, you should know a few things. First, the incidence of deep vein thrombosis is much higher than pulmonary embolism, which might need vein filters implantation. This is a safe technique to prevent embolism to the lungs, which is threatening. Second, you should consider taking low weight molecular heparin, which is unclear about the dosage and the period, but protects from thrombosis and is not teratogenic (does not harm your baby)
Basically, there is a decision based on two situations that carry some risk. And the risk is higher if you decide to continue the pregnancy.
I am sorry you should take this hard decision.
Warm regards.