The pain of having an abortion may take years to emerge, according to a new study published today.
Researchers in Norway compared the experiences of women who suffered the loss of a baby through miscarriage with those who underwent abortion.
Women were interviewed at periods of up to five years after the event.
The pain of having an abortion may take years to emerge, according to a new study published today.
Researchers in Norway compared the experiences of women who suffered the loss of a baby through miscarriage with those who underwent abortion.
Women were interviewed at periods of up to five years after the event.
Writing in the journal BMC Medicine, the researchers say that women who suffered miscarriage experienced more mental distress for the six months following the loss.
But two years later it was the women who had abortions who were experienced mental misery – and this was the same five years afterwards.
Researcher Anne Nordal Broen, of the University of Oslo, in Norway, and colleagues from the Buskerud Hospital in Drammen, Norway, studied 40 women who suffered miscarriages and 80 who had abortions.
They write: “Women who had an abortion experienced high levels of anxiety, feelings of guilt, shame and relief and had to make efforts to avoid thoughts about the event.
“When compared with women from the general population, women who had an abortion experienced more anxiety ten days, six months, two years and five years after the event.”
BMC Medicine December 12, 2005
Date: December 12, 2005
