Table 4.
Symptoms and acceptability of abortion experience
| D&E (n = 220) |
Medical induction (n = 84) |
P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall pain during entire abortion experience | 0.001 | ||
| Extreme pain | 75 (34%) | 23 (31%) | |
| High pain | 50 (23%) | 10 (14%) | |
| Moderate pain | 40 (18%) | 11 (15%) | |
| Slight pain | 38 (17%) | 11 (15%) | |
| No pain | 15 (7%) | 19 (26%) | |
| Symptoms reported | |||
| Nausea | 15 (7%) | 2 (3%) | 0.255 |
| Vomiting | 57 (26%) | 23 (31%) | 0.452 |
| Dizziness | 63 (29%) | 25 (34%) | 0.465 |
| Diarrhea | 83 (38%) | 40 (54%) | 0.020 |
| Tiredness | 107 (49%) | 40 (54%) | 0.575 |
| Pain in lower abdomen | 214 (98%) | 74 (100%) | 0.573 |
| Breast tenderness | 106 (49%) | 25 (34%) | 0.031 |
| Headache | 84 (39%) | 27 (37%) | 0.783 |
| Cold | 89 (41%) | 29 (39%) | 0.891 |
| Sweating/hot/fever | 13 (6%) | 3 (4%) | 0.769 |
| Other symptoms | 31 (14%) | 2 (3%) | 0.005 |
| Overall emotional discomfort with abortion | 0.017 | ||
| Moderate, high or extreme discomfort | 108 (50%) | 25 (34%) | |
| None or slight discomfort | 109 (50%) | 49 (66%) | |
| Overall satisfaction with abortion | 1.000 | ||
| Very or somewhat satisfied | 207 (95%) | 71 (96%) | |
| Neutral or somewhat or very dissatisfied | 11 (5%) | 3 (4%) | |
| Would recommend the abortion method to a friend who needed one at same gestational age | 0.995 | ||
| Highly or somewhat agree | 159 (73%) | 54 (73.0%) | |
| Neutral or somewhat or highly disagree | 59 (27%) | 20 (27%) | |