Hypnosis for abortion pain

Hypnosis offers an additional way to ease pain in women having an early pregnancy abortion.Pain management during abortion remains a challenge and current findings suggest that hypnotic pain relief might help in relieving women's pain and anxiety during the procedure. During hypnotherapy, patients are aided in getting into a relaxed state of consciousness, and then given suggestions for ways to manage symptoms or change their behaviour.Researchers from Canada studied 350 women who had a first-trimester abortion. Half the women were randomly assigned to have a hypnotic relaxation session where they were offered ways to deal with their pain during the abortion. The hypnotherapist then remained with them during the procedure. The rest of the patients received standard care; a nurse specialist stayed with them during the procedure and gave advice on relaxing and deep breathing, but offered no specific instructions on decreasing pain or anxiety. It was found that 63 percent of women in the hypnotherapy group ended up requesting IV pain medication during the procedure, compared with 85 percent in the standard-care group. Such drugs do partially relieve pain during abortion, but there are good reasons to reduce women's need for them. In general, less medication means a faster recovery, fewer side effects and a quicker discharge. Other studies have shown that hypnotic pain relief can affect nervous system activity in a way that dampens the body's response to pain. The results of this study strongly support the need for a larger study to confirm that hypnosis can be offered to patients without any risk, with better care satisfaction and recovery during stressful gynaecological procedures.

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