Secondary infertility following induced abortion. World Health Organization Task Force on Sequelae of Abortion, special programme of research, development and research training in human reproduction.

Two university centers in Debrecen, Hungary and Seoul, Republic of Korea collaborated in a prospective study of fertility following induced abortion. Conception rates were compared for 30 months among two groups of women whose last pregnancy outcome was either an induced abortion or a live birth. The cumulative life-table pregnancy rates at each six-month interval for the 30 months of the study were similar in the two groups, although the pregnancy rate was higher in Debrecen than in Seoul for both groups, probably reflecting age differences between the two groups. In the first six months of the study, 4 of the 229 pregnancies in the induced abortion group were ectopic, whereas none of the 292 pregnancies in the live birth group were ectopic. Although on the basis of the two populations studied there is no evidence of a reduced ability to conceive following induced abortion, the occurrence of four ectopic pregnancies in the induced abortion group warrants further investigation.