# Post Abortion Stress Syndrome **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2001, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457 "2001-11-04T18:44:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gomez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d78d45/32.png) [@Gomez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gomez)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/1 "2001-11-04T18:44:55Z")
Is there such a condition as post abortion stress syndrome? I’ve searched for it but all I’ve found is a load of partisan bullshit on both sides. Can anyone give me the Straight Dope? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/2 "2001-11-04T19:02:37Z")
This seems fairly unbiased. [http://www.mhsource.com/expert/exp1121597a.html](http://www.mhsource.com/expert/exp1121597a.html) > [@](#): > > While it is true that after a full-term pregnancy, there is a very dramatic decline in female hormones (e.g., estrogen and progesterone); that has been invoked as an explanation for some postpartum psychotic and depressive states, it seems unlikely that the same scenario could apply after most induced abortions. Until around day 140 of pregnancy (roughly, 4 and 1/2 months), hormone levels are still fairly low, and nowhere near those seen by month 9 of a full-term pregnancy. Thus, unless the abortion is very late (after month 6), it seems doubtful that hormonal changes alone could account for a severe emotional reaction. > > Keep in mind that there are over one million abortions in this country each year; if hormones alone were the decisive factor, we would be seeing over a million cases of post-abortion psychosis per year–and I don’t think this is the case. Indeed, in a Scandinavian study of induced abortion after the 12th week of pregnancy, none of the 76 women regretted the decision to have the abortion afterwards, and none had seen a doctor in the four month period after the abortion. Some did have psychological problems associated with the abortion, but no cases of psychosis or severe psychiatric complications were reported. A British study found a rate of post-abortion psychosis of only 0.3 per 1000 legal abortions, as compared with a postpartum psychosis incidence of 1.7 per 1000 deliveries. Here’s the Scandinavian (Danish) study. > **[Depression Types, Causes, Symptoms, Statistics, & Treatment](https://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html)** > > Being depressed feels like carrying a heavy burden, but you are not alone. Millions suffer from depression, one of the most common mental health disorders. > [@](#): > > Ugeskr Laeger 1996 Jul 29;158(31):4395-4398 > Induced abortion after the 12th week of pregnancy in the county of Arhus 1993-1994. Psychological consequences. > [Article in Danish] > Meyer L, Petersson BH > Kobenhavns Universitet, Medicinsk Kvindeforskning, Afdelingen for Social Medicin. > > The records of all women applying for permission to have an abortion performed after the 12th week of pregnancy during a one-year period in the County of Aarhus were continuously reviewed, and the women who had the abortion performed due to psychosocial reasons were interviewed with a questionnaire at the time of the abortion and again four months later. > > Of the 76 women who applied for permission for a late abortion the following were excluded from the study: 31 who had the abortion because a malformed child was suspected, six women who did not have the abortion although permission had been given, five women who did not receive permission, four who were under 18 years of age, one who had a miscarriage, 10 who were from another country of origin and did not understand Danish and finally four women who were allowed an abortion on a medical indication and who were either in hospital or in jail. > > Fifteen women were questioned concerning their age, length of pregnancy and psychological and social histories and were asked to fill out a depression scale. The data showed that none of them had planned their pregnancy and they had had no symptoms of pregnancy until the time at which they applied for the abortion. None of them regretted the abortion afterwards; half of the women were under psychological strain at the time of application, and a few of them had even more psychological symptoms four months after the abortion. Although they had many social problems, physical complications and psychological problems only a few of the women had seen a doctor in the four month period between the abortion and the follow-up. So, it really isn’t that definitive a study–they really only surveyed 15 women, not 76 women. There are a number of other studies cited and summarized on this website. > [@](#): > > Contraception 1996 May;53(5):267-273 > A follow-up study of first trimester induced abortions at hospitals and family planning clinics in Sichuan province, China. > Luo L, Wu SZ, Chen XQ, Li MX, Pullum TW > Sichuan Family Planning Research Institute, Chengdu, China. > > Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1994 Nov;73(10):812-818 > Psychological responses following medical abortion (using mifepristone and gemeprost) and surgical vacuum aspiration. A patient-centered, partially randomised prospective study. > Henshaw R, Naji S, Russell I, Templeton A > Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, United Kingdom. > > J Pers Soc Psychol 1993 Dec;65(6):1224-1236 > Personality and self-efficacy as predictors of coping with abortion. > Cozzarelli C > Department of Psychology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66502. > > Br J Psychiatry 1992 Jun;160:742-749 > The psychological complications of therapeutic abortion. > Zolese G, Blacker CV > Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. > > South Med J 1990 Jul;83(7):736-738 > Postabortion dysphoria and religion. > Tamburrino MB, Franco KN, Campbell NB, Pentz JE, Evans CL, Jurs SG > Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo 43699-0008. > > Arch Gen Psychiatry 1976 Jun;33(6):725-733 > Outcome following therapeutic abortion. > Payne EC, Kravitz AR, Notman MT, Anderson JV > > Br J Psychiatry 1976 Jan;128:74-79 > Psychosocial consequences of therapeutic abortion King’s termination study III. > Greer HS, Lal S, Lewis SC, Belsey EM, Beard RW > > Can Med Assoc J 1975 Oct 18;113(8):754-757 > Therapeutic abortion and its psychological implications: the Canadian experience. > Greenglass ER > Department of Psychology, York University, Downsview, ON. > > Am J Orthopsychiatry 1975 Apr;45(3):446-454 > Emotional responses of women following therapeutic abortion. > Adler NE I haven’t really studied these, but from a cursory reading of them, it sounds like the answer to the OP is, “No, not really. There’s no real ‘syndrome’ as such. Whether a woman is depressed following an abortion depends on so many other things.” ---
**Author:** ![NevarMore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7feea3/32.png) [@NevarMore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NevarMore)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/3 "2001-11-04T19:02:57Z")
Wether its got such a nice name or not, I’m absolutely sure there is such a condition. IANAW (I am not a woman), but it’s blindingly obvious that most women who have abortions do realize that they are ending a life, the abortion itself may also bring about memories and regrets about waht caused the pregnancy to begin with. About a year or so before I was concieved, my mother had a miscarriage and from what I can pick up that really messed with her head for some time. I don’t know if this affects my answer, and I don’t want to start a GD but I am in favor of legalized abortions ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/4 "2001-11-04T19:14:58Z")
Well, in General Questions, what we go by is “data”, not “opinion”, and it looks to me like there’s no “data” yet that shows that there’s an actual syndrome called “post abortion stress disorder”, the way there’s a syndrome called “post traumatic stress disorder”. Some women are depressed after an abortion. Some women are also depressed after a hysterectomy. Some women are depressed after gall bladder surgery. But the question is, “Does the abortion _cause_ the depression?” the same way the question is, “Does the hysterectomy _cause_ the depression”? So far, I don’t see any medical evidence that having an abortion automatically _causes_ depression. The studies cited in the link seemed to be saying that many, if not most women cope with having had an abortion perfectly well, with no depression. You are of course perfectly welcome to go over to Great Debates and start a thread debating the existence or non-existence of “post abortion stress syndrome”. Or a thread debating legalized abortions. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/5 "2001-11-04T19:29:08Z")
I remember this from early in C. Everett Koop’s tenure as Surgeon General: The Reagan administration picked him in part for his conservative values, and they requested he study and report on the issue of abortion’s effects on women. They were quite upset when after finishing his review of available literature, Koop refused to say that there was evidence that abortion led to significant negative effects for women. Despite his personal opinions, he felt there was no statistically significant evidence that it did, and he refused to compromise his scientific standards. I respected him for that. Qadgop, MD ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/6 "2001-11-04T20:13:30Z")
Some women find abortion very stressful. Of course, abortion is not always an elective procedure and miscarriages can fall into categories including missed abortions, complete abortions, incomplete abortions, etc. Do you need a fancy name for this? In the cases where it happens, it seems to be like a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Our teaching, oddly enough, was that women who deliver stillbirths vaginally and get a chance to hold the fetus often do better psychologically then women who don’t for late abortions. Reagan et al hoped to dictate elective abortions lead to psychiatric disease, which is hard to accept both medically and morally is an imposition on the right of women to decide what they want to do with their bodies, so sayeth I. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/7 "2001-11-04T21:05:03Z")
I too thought it might be related to Post-Partum Depression. Of course, an abortion is NOT an easy decision to make, and I think I can say with confidence that NO ONE loves abortion. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/8 "2001-11-04T22:28:46Z")
I don’t have scientific evidence to add here, but I did want to addressd Nevarmore’s observation. While it is likely that an elective abortion is not something that most women take lightly, you must also remember that intermingled with the loss is a sense of relief. That may do much to balance the negative feelings. I’ve heard the same thing from women who have miscarried early in an ill-timed pregnancy. While they certainly feel the loss, they also have relief from the worrying they were doing. There is ambivalence. In the case of an abortion sought out after careful consideration, I would think that the rational thought-process she went through prior to the procedure would help her to deal with the negative feelings that arise afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/9 "2001-11-04T22:40:45Z")
I didn’t have any stress… all I felt was relief. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/10 "2001-11-04T23:25:50Z")
While I am strongly pro-life, I am unaware of any reputable and complete study that suggests a “syndrome” following abortions. As **Duck Duck Goose** suggests, there’s no question that some women become depressed following an abortion, but this, alone, does not a syndrome make. I say this after spending some time scouring sources in search of evidence in favor of such a thing. There are plenty of claims, but I found a great deal of flawed methodology and wishful-thinking analysis instead of solid, statistical work. I believe there are many considerations against deciding to abort an unborn child, but a “Post Abortion Stress Syndrome” risk is unlikely to be one of them. - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/11 "2001-11-04T23:33:04Z")
Here is a thread that has some relevance to this subject: [Do most people who have an abortion regret it?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=52467) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/12 "2001-11-04T23:33:07Z")
I am a woman, but I have not had an abortion. I do have friends who have had them, though, and all I can say for sure is that no two abortions are alike. One friend with no desire for children (she was conscientious about birth control, but no method is 100% effective) has had no regrets. I knew a woman with severe depression who had an abortion and was depressed afterwards - but since she was depressed before I don’t think you can blame the abortion. I know someone who very much wanted a child, found out the baby was grieviously deformed around month 4 (apparently no chance of survival after birth), and went through full grief and mourning - but that seemed to be more over the deformity of a wanted child than the abortion procedure itself. I know a woman who had an abortion then 5 years later became a born-again conservative Christian, at which point she experienced distress over her past “murder”, but I think that was in part because her creepy husband used to rub it in her face that she was a “baby-killer”. So, I don’t think abortion in and of itself is going to “traumatize” a woman anymore than actually having a baby would. Some women are overjoyed to have children, some women regret having them. From my own completely unscientific experience of hearing friends talk about their experience, I’d say the usual emotion is relief. There might be some regret, but it’s more regret at the circumstances leading up to the decision to abort rather than the procedure itself. Even then, no one thinks it’s a wonderful thing, just better than the alternatives they had at the time. ---
**Author:** ![AKAmame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aca169/32.png) [@AKAmame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AKAmame)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/13 "2001-11-05T02:41:09Z")
Warning - anecdotal. I had an early termination years ago - the diaphragm failed. Was I distressed? Not really, but it’s not a thing I would pick over efficient contraception. Most of the transient distress I felt was because the nursing staff treated me like a criminal. Didn’t even think about it till we got pregnant intentionally many years later and I had to provide a medical history to the OB/GYN. That second pregnancy resulted in a second trimester termination after a CVS. (The genetics testing laboratory glitched and didn’t report to my doctor or me that the foetus was Down’s syndrome, and everyone was coasting on the “Don’t worry, if you don’t hear it means everything is OK. If there’s a problem they’ll tell you” line.) Was I distressed? There are no words that can be used in this forum to answer that. Though I did use many of them in my communications with the laboratory. The doc who did the second termination does most of the later terminations for that hospital. I asked him at the time about women’s reactions, because mine were so different for the two occasions. He said that for most of his patients, women who did not want to be pregnant, their main reaction at the time, and in follow-ups, was relief. Women like me who wanted to be pregnant grieved, not because the foetus was malformed, but for the loss of the child they wanted. And I am now the happy parent of a 4 year old, much loved, much wanted, girl. ---
**Author:** ![straykat23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@straykat23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straykat23)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-abortion-stress-syndrome/91457/14 "2001-11-05T02:53:32Z")
Pregnancy can bring about all sorts of stress disorders: ``` post-partum depression post-abortion depression post-adoption depression post-miscarriage depression ``` As an earlier poster said, no two abortions are alike; likewise, no two pregnancies are alike even for the same woman.