Ultrasound; an unnecessary burden on women seeking early medical abortion?
| Thursday, July 24, 2025 |
| 8:00 AM - 8:40 AM |
| Exhibition Hall and Foyer |
Overview
Presenter: Catherine Bateman
Speaker
Mrs Catherine Bateman
Sexual And Reproductive Health Nurse
Latrobe Community Health Service
Ultrasound; an unnecessary burden on women seeking early medical abortion?
8:00 AM - 8:40 AMAbstract
Objectives: To compare outcomes among patients who had a confirmed intrauterine pregnancy vs those who had a probable intrauterine pregnancy and those with an pregnancy not seen before obtaining a prescription for a medical abortion (MA) at a nurse led community health centre in Gippsland, Victoria Australia.
Discussion: Total abortions are understood to be declining in Australia overall. But medical abortion as a percentage of total abortions has risen since MS2Step was PBS listed. This increasing popularity of medical abortion is driving the responsibility for abortion care onto primary care providers such as GPs, NPs and practice nurses.
This nurse led study was developed to challenge the common requirement of confirmed intrauterine pregnancy on ultrasound prior to prescription of MS2Step in primary care.
Study design: This retrospective clinical audit includes all patients obtaining a medication abortion at a community health service in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia between July 2022 and June 2025. Clinical records are audited and patients assigned to one of three groups; intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) confirmed by sonographer, probable intrauterine pregnancy (PIUP) seen by sonographer or trained primary health professional or pregnancy not seen (PNS) – no ultrasound or ultrasound shows nothing.
Outcomes are; abortion complete with initial course of MS2Step alone (AC), ongoing pregnancy (OP), ectopic pregnancy (EP), emergency hospitalisation (EH) or other non-emergency unplanned clinical encounter (other).
Conclusions: In this clinical audit, confirmation of a viable, intrauterine pregnancy via formal ultrasound by sonographer with visualised gestational sac, yolk sac and foetal pole is not consistent with higher safety or efficacy for patients seeking medical abortion. Patients in this audit have low rates of complications consistent with existing knowledge about medical abortion.
This is an ongoing audit with data being added quarterly, the poster presented at this conference will have the most up to date data available.
Discussion: Total abortions are understood to be declining in Australia overall. But medical abortion as a percentage of total abortions has risen since MS2Step was PBS listed. This increasing popularity of medical abortion is driving the responsibility for abortion care onto primary care providers such as GPs, NPs and practice nurses.
This nurse led study was developed to challenge the common requirement of confirmed intrauterine pregnancy on ultrasound prior to prescription of MS2Step in primary care.
Study design: This retrospective clinical audit includes all patients obtaining a medication abortion at a community health service in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia between July 2022 and June 2025. Clinical records are audited and patients assigned to one of three groups; intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) confirmed by sonographer, probable intrauterine pregnancy (PIUP) seen by sonographer or trained primary health professional or pregnancy not seen (PNS) – no ultrasound or ultrasound shows nothing.
Outcomes are; abortion complete with initial course of MS2Step alone (AC), ongoing pregnancy (OP), ectopic pregnancy (EP), emergency hospitalisation (EH) or other non-emergency unplanned clinical encounter (other).
Conclusions: In this clinical audit, confirmation of a viable, intrauterine pregnancy via formal ultrasound by sonographer with visualised gestational sac, yolk sac and foetal pole is not consistent with higher safety or efficacy for patients seeking medical abortion. Patients in this audit have low rates of complications consistent with existing knowledge about medical abortion.
This is an ongoing audit with data being added quarterly, the poster presented at this conference will have the most up to date data available.
Biography
Cath Bateman is a Registered Nurse with clinical expertise in the field of Sexual & Reproductive Health.
Cath’s educational background includes a Master of Public Health, Bachelor of Applied Science (Health Promotion) and post graduate qualifications in research methods and gender mainstreaming. In addition, ongoing professional development in several areas of women’s, sexual a reproductive health and gender affirming care. Of particular pride is Cath’s training and use of bedside ultrasound in her practice.
