Use of mifepristone in the termination of early pregnancy. The experience in France

: Are reported the results obtained with mifepristone, administered alone or followed by a low dose of prostaglandin derivative, as an alternative to endometrial aspiration for termination of early pregnancy. Mifepristone was first used alone in doses of 600 mg in 1,841 women. Subsequently, 703 other women received, 36 to 48 hours after mifepristone, either sulprostone (a prostaglandin E2 analogue) 0.25 mg intramuscularly, or gemeprost (a prostaglandin E1 analogue) 1 mg as pessary, or meteneprost (a prostaglandin E2 analogue) 10 mg as pessary. Mifepristone administered alone was successful in 80 per cent of pregnant women with less than 42 days of amenorrhoea. The mifepristone-prostaglandin combination was successful in more than 95 per cent of pregnant women with less than 50 days of amenorrhoea. Expulsion of the ovum was difficult to date when mifepristone was used alone; it occurred within 24 hours of prostaglandin dosing in more than 80 per cent of the other women. Uterine bleeding was almost constant. It was more copious than the usual menses in the majority of women, with or without prostaglandin, and it sometimes required aspiration or curettage (mifepristone alone 1.3 per cent, with prostaglandin 0.28 per cent) and/or blood transfusion (mifepristone alone 0.4 per cent, with prostaglandin 0.14 per cent). Administered alone, mifepristone was very well tolerated. When prostaglandin analogues were added the women complained of lower abdominal pain which required a minor antalgic treatment in 30 to 50 per cent of the cases. Gastrointestinal side-effects were mild, probably due to the low doses of prostaglandin administered.