Home-Administered Misoprostol Safe Abortion Option for Women Up to 63 Days Pregnant, Study Finds

March 11, 2010 — A team of Swedish researchers concludes that taking misoprostol at home as part of a medical abortion regimen is a safe option for women who are 50 to 63 days pregnant, according to a study published in the journal Human Reproduction, Reuters reports. The study's authors said that their research is the first published report to examine at-home medical abortion in women who were more than 49 days pregnant.

In the U.S., women have been permitted to take physician-prescribed misoprostol at home since 2000. Mifepristone -- the first drug in the medical abortion regimen, which is taken three to four days prior to misoprostol -- is administered at a clinic, physician’s office or hospital. Most European countries require that women take both drugs in a clinic, doctor's office or hospital, although home administration is permitted in Sweden, Reuters reports.

For the study, Helena Kopp Kallner of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and colleagues followed about 3,000 medical abortion patients at their clinic in Sweden from January 2004 through April 2007. Of the women, 395 opted for home administration of misoprostol. Of those 395 women, 203 were fewer than 50 days pregnant and 192 were 50 to 63 days pregnant. The home-administration group took mifepristone orally at the clinic and was given four misoprostol tablets to administer vaginally up to two days later.

Among women who were fewer than 50 days pregnant, 199 experienced complete abortions, while 186 of the women who were between 50 and 63 days pregnant experienced complete abortions. Ten women required surgery. About six in 10 women in both groups needed extra pain medication. The study concluded that home administration of misoprostol is "safe and highly acceptable also to women with a gestational length of 50-63 days as compared with shorter gestations" (Reuters, 3/9).