Women's real-time pain and stress during medical abortion: An ecological momentary assessment study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Knowledge on women's pain and stress experiences during medical abortion is scarce and evidence mainly relies on retrospective reports, which are prone to recall bias. Hence, our objective was to study real-time self-reported pain and stress throughout the medical abortion process, their fluctuation over time, and to examine whether age, parity, gestational age, adverse childhood events (ACE), and contextual factors (e.g., analgesics intake, bleeding) were associated with pain and stress.

Material and methods

This one-group, single center, exploratory cohort study (conducted 2020-2023) used ecological momentary assessment (EMA). A population-based sample of women ≥18 years of age presenting for first trimester medical abortion at ≤9th week of gestation was appro

SUBMITTER: Felnhofer A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12746204 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature