INDUCED-ABORTION IN THE FIRST-TRIMESTER OF PREGNANCY AND RISK OF MISCARRIAGE

Objective To analyse the relation between induced abortion and risk of subsequent miscarriage. Design Case-control study conducted between F ebruary 1990 and May 1995. Participants Case group included 782 women (median age 32 years, range 14-46) admitted for spontaneous abortion ( within the 12th week of gestation) to a network of obstetric departmen ts in the greater Milan area. The control group was recruited among wo men who gave birth at term (> 37 weeks of gestation) to healthy infant s on randomly selected days at the hospitals where cases had been iden tified. A total of 1543 controls (median age 30 years, range 14-45) we re interviewed. Results A total of 102 cases (13%) and 181 controls (1 2%) reported one or more induced abortions. No clear relation emerged between miscarriage and induced abortions. In comparison with women re porting no induced abortion the odds ratio (OR) for miscarriage were 1 .1 (95% CI 0.8-1.4) in women reporting one induced abortion and 0.9 (9 5% CI 0.4-1.8) in women reporting two or more. Likewise, there was no association between time since last and age at first induced abortion and risk of miscarriage. Conclusions This study did not find any stron g association between induced and spontaneous abortion.