New study - RU486 does not cause greater risk

An important story just came over the wire regarding abortion pills. If you all can remember the Bush administration held up FDA approval of the RU486 morning after pill for political reasons suggesting some sort of health concern. The drug finally did get clearance and now we have a study assessing the health risks of the pill and it is positive news for women.

Check it out below the fold:

Here is the story

ATLANTA - Women who use abortion pills rather than the more common surgical method seem to face no greater risk of tubal pregnancy or miscarriage in later pregnancies, according to a new study.

The federally funded research — based on nearly 12,000 Danish women — is considered the best study to date of the impact of this newer abortion method on subsequent pregnancies.

............

The U.S. and Danish researchers studied medical abortions. Generally, it involves a woman ending a pregnancy by taking one tablet of mifespristone — formerly known as RU-486 — followed by about four misoprostol pills a day or two later. The mifepristone destabilize the connecting tissue between an embryo and the uterus, and the misoprostol causes the uterus to expel the embryo.

Medical abortions appeal to women because they can do it in the privacy of their home, can seem less intimidating than surgical abortion and just about any doctor can prescribe the pills, experts said.

The U.S. government approved the marketing of mifepristone for medical abortions in 2000, and European countries approved it years earlier.

Specifics of the study

While previous research has shown surgical abortions don't increase the risk of problems in later pregnancies, little research had been done into the impact of medical abortions.

Generally, surgical abortions completely remove an embryo or fetus and surrounding uterine tissue but abortions done with pills may leave bits of placenta or other embryonic material. Some doctors have wondered whether that might interfere with subsequent pregnancies, said Dr. Matthew Reeves, a reproductive medicine expert at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

"This kind of squashes any concerns," said Reeves, who was not involved in the study.

The paper is published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

In the new study, researchers used a national abortion registry to identify all women in Denmark who had abortions between 1999 and 2004, and then got information on later pregnancies from national patient and birth registries.

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They looked at tubal pregnancies, in which a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus — usually in the fallopian tubes. Such a situation fails to nurture the embryo and endangers the mother.

The new study found tubal pregnancies occurred at the same frequency — about 2.5 percent of the time — in both the medical and surgical groups. The rates of miscarriage, early deliveries and low birth weight babies also were similar.

New England Journal of Medicine

I know this issue is important to alot of people and so I wanted to get it out to you folks to check out. Sorry for the short diary I am composing it on the fly - if there is anything people would like to add to this story please advise and I will update the diary.

•  Christians don't protect

  their children from cervical cancer - bleep those liberal doctors who want to give the anti-viral vaccine.

  HIV is a plague sent by God.

  RU 486 is used only by sinners and heathens.

  by enthusiast on Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 10:59:20 PM PDT

  •  Not really - but right wingers think so

    Christ himself wanted to heal the ill and prevent illness, and God would not want children brought into the world if unwanted, and the idea of God-induced plagues is truly primitive.

    by enthusiast on Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 11:03:55 PM PDT

•  RU486 Causes Conniptions in Christians

  should be the headline.

  Honestly, I don't understand the Righteous Wing's desire to control other peoples lives.

  by groggy on Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 12:00:16 AM PDT

•  There was a pretty highly publicized

  death of a young woman who took RU486 a few years back here in the Bay Area, and her father fought to ban it.

  But what wasn't as well stressed was that when she started to suffer heavy bleeding, SHE DIDN'T TELL THE EMERGENCY ROOM PERSONNEL SHE HAD TAKEN THE DRUG!!! She told them that she was just having a really bad menstrual period, so of course they just gave her some drugs and sent her on her way. The focus of the story should have been the importance of honesty with your treating physicians -- and perhaps the need for stronger confidentiality laws as she may have been afraid the doctors would tell her dad.

  Question for any medical personnel: wouldn't any remaining bits of placenta or material be cleared out by the body during subsequent menstrual cycles? Maybe just have a little heavier period for a few months after the use of RU486? Never having been pregnant, I'm a bit clueless on the physiology involved...

  by Cali Scribe on Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 05:08:30 AM PDT