A guide to Medical Termination of Pregnancy And Sexually transmitted infections

Описание: Intentional or voluntary termination of pregnancy before full term is called medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) or induced abortion.
Nearly 45 to 50 million MTPs are performed in a year all over the world which accounts to 1/5th of the total number of conceived pregnancies in a year.
Government of India legalised MTP in 1971 with some strict conditions to avoid its misuse. Such restrictions are all the more important to check indiscriminate and illegal female foeticides which are reported to be high in India.
Why MTP? Obviously the answer is–to get rid of unwanted
pregnancies either due to casual unprotected intercourse or failure of the contraceptive used during coitus or rapes. MTPs are also essential in certain cases where continuation of the pregnancy could be harmful or even fatal either to the mother or to the foetus or both.
MTPs are considered relatively safe during the first trimester, i.e., upto 12 weeks of pregnancy. Second trimester abortions are much more riskier.
One disturbing trend observed is that a majority of the MTPs are performed illegally by unqualified quacks which are not only unsafe but could be fatal too. Another dangerous trend is the misuse of amniocentesis to determine the sex of the unborn child. Frequently, if the foetus is found
to be female, it is followed by MTP- this is totally against what is legal. Such practices should be avoided because these are dangerous both for the young mother and the foetus. Effective counselling on the need to
avoid unprotected coitus and the risk factors involved in illegal abortions as well as providing more health care facilities could reverse the mentioned unhealthy trend.
Infections or diseases which are transmitted through sexual intercourse are collectively called sexually transmitted infections (STI) or venereal diseases (VD) or reproductive tract infections (RTI). Gonorrhoea, syphilis, genital herpes, chlamydiasis, genital warts, trichomoniasis, hepatitis-B
and of course, the most discussed infection in the recent years, HIV leading to AIDS are some of the common STIs. Among these, HIV infection is most dangerous.
Some of these infections like hepatitis–B and HIV can also be transmitted by sharing of injection needles, surgical instruments, etc., with infected persons, transfusion of blood, or from an infected mother to the foetus too. Except for hepatitis-B, genital herpes and HIV infections,
other diseases are completely curable if detected early and treated properly. Early symptoms of most of these are minor and include itching, fluid discharge, slight pain, swellings, etc., in the genital region. Infected females may often be asymptomatic and hence, may remain undetected
for long. Absence or less significant symptoms in the early stages of infection and the social stigma attached to the STIs, deter the infected persons from going for timely detection and proper treatment. This could lead to complications later, which include pelvic inflammatory diseases (PID), abortions, still births, ectopic pregnancies, infertility or even cancer of the reproductive tract. STIs are a major threat to a healthy society. Therefore, prevention or early detection and cure of these diseases are given prime consideration under the reproductive health-care
programmes. Though all persons are vulnerable to these infections, their incidences are reported to be very high among persons in the age group of 15-24 years – the age group to which you also belong. There is no reason to panic because prevention is possible. One could be free of these
infections by following the simple principles given below:
(i) Avoid sex with unknown partners/multiple partners.
(ii) Always try to use condoms during coitus.
(iii) In case of doubt, one should go to a qualified doctor for early detection and get complete treatment if diagnosed with infection.