Acceptability of misoprostol-only medical termination of pregnancy compared with vacuum aspiration: an international, multicentre trial

Please cite this paper as: Rodriguez M, Seuc A, Kapp N, von Hertzen H, Huong N, Wojdyla D, Mittal S, Arustamyan K, Shah R, the World Health Organization Research Group on Post-Ovulatory Methods of Fertility Regulation. Acceptability of misoprostol-only medical termination of pregnancy compared with vacuum aspiration: an international, multicentre trial. BJOG 2012;119:817–823. Objective  To compare women’s acceptance of misoprostol-only medical termination of pregnancy (TOP) with surgical TOP. Design  Prospective cohort study. Setting  Termination of pregnancy clinics in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hanoi, Tbilisi, Trivandrum and Yerevan. Population  Women requesting TOP, at 63 days of gestation or less, at study sites where both medical and surgical methods were available. Methods  Serial surveys eliciting measures of women’s satisfaction and acceptance of TOP method were administered. Data were analysed using cross-tabulation and logistic regression to determine if TOP method was predictive of acceptability. Main outcome measures  Patient acceptance. Results  High acceptability of both surgical and misoprostol-only TOP. Conclusions  Where medical TOP with mifepristone is not available, misoprostol-only medical TOP is acceptable to women who have the choice between medical or surgical techniques.