What are the possible complications of vacuum aspiration?
Like any other surgical procedure, an abortion by vacuum aspiration carries some risks that you should be aware of.
Significant, unavoidable or frequently occurring risks:
These are usually easy to treat and rarely have any long-term health effects:
- Retained products of conception – where the pregnancy has been successfully ended but some of the pregnancy tissue is left behind in the womb (1 in 600 procedures)
- Infection (1 in 6,500 procedures)
- Unpredictable bleeding after the abortion
- Pain during the procedure
- Injury to the cervix (1 in 11,000 procedures)
These may require transfer to hospital or surgical procedures, and may have serious long-term health effects:
- Continuing pregnancy (1 in 1,500 procedures)
- Perforation of the uterus/womb (1 in 6,500 procedures)
- Haemorrhage – very heavy bleeding (1 in 8,000 procedures)
- Injury to bowel, bladder or serious injury to cervix (very rare)
Extra procedures that may be necessary if complications arise:
- Repeat surgical abortion or uterine aspiration
- Blood transfusion
- Laparoscopy or laparotomy – operation to look inside the abdomen
- Repair of damage to cervix, uterus, bladder, bowel or blood vessels
- Hysterectomy – surgical removal of the womb (1 in 35,000 procedures)
Death is very rarely linked to abortion treatment – less than 1 in 100,000 of all abortions.
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