An unusual case of infertility: Retention of fetal bone

Abstract

The challenge and issues of women procuring abortion had been documented for centuries. Most of these acts had been illegitimate, obtained from unlicensed health centres and had resulted in too many complications and death of some of the women. These post-abortal complications are mostly under-reported since they are done in secrecy and the victims themselves do not want to face the public stigmatization that goes with public knowledge that one did an abortion. These abortion clinics are illegal, not meant to offer such services, manned by improperly trained personnels. The environment may not be conducive, the instruments used may not be appropriate and also may not be properly sterilized. But they are highly patronized by desperate women and girls who got pregnant unintentionally and must terminate such pregnancies at all cost and any means. They cannot go to public hospitals or to most privately owned hospitals because abortion is a criminal act that may attract criminal prosecution and a jail term. So, the numerous undocumented abortions are done in these unsanitary centres. Some do well, but some end up with complications. Our report is one of such cases that ended with a peculiar complication that only manifested years afterwards. It was a unique case of a bony part of the aborted foetus that was retained in the Teenager’s uterus and caused infertility even after the she got married.