Abortion Research Studies
Abortion Care in Rural Communities Study
The “How Far is Too Far” study is a multi-country study (Scotland, Canada, Sweden & Australia) looking at the experiences of women having abortions within rural communities. The study plans to do interviews (online or via telephone) with patients who have had abortions in a rural areas about how they found the experience. We will also be doing interviews with health care professionals who provide abortions for people within rural communities.
If you are a patient wishing to participate in this study please click here for more information. If you are a health care professional please click here.
If you would like further information or to participate in this study please email chalmers.research@ed.ac.uk
Early Medical Abortion at Home between 10 & 12 weeks gestation Study
Women in Scotland can take both pills needed for a medication abortion- mifepristone and misoprostol- at home up to 12 completed weeks of pregnancy. This is different than other areas of the UK, where women can only do this up to 10 completed weeks of pregnancy. We want to speak to women who have had their abortion at home between 10 and 12 completed weeks of pregnancy to hear about their experience of this, whether they were happy with this treatment and what we could do differently.
If you participated in this study, you would take part in an interview of no more than an hour, that could be done in person, or on telephone/ by videocall. You will receive a £25 voucher for participating in this interview.
If you would like further information on this study, please click here and email chalmers.research@ed.ac.uk and we will get back to you.
Point of Care Testing in Very Early Medical Abortion Study
A very early medical abortion is when you have an abortion at less than 6 weeks since you became pregnant. In patients who are having an ultrasound scan before their abortion, it is not always possible to confirm a normal pregnancy on scan when it is this early. Therefore, patients will have their pregnancy hormone level tested on the day they start their abortion treatment (Day 0) and 7 days later (Day 7) to check it has worked.
We want to see if it is possible to confirm that an abortion has worked earlier than 7 days after this treatment. If you participated in this study, you would come for one extra clinic visit between Day 2 and Day 4 after you started your abortion treatment and have a blood test taken. You would still come back on Day 7 as usual. You would receive a £45 voucher for participating in this study.
If you would like further information on this study, please click here and email chalmers.research@ed.ac.uk