Women's perception of transvaginal sonography in the first trimester; in an early pregnancy assessment unit.

The objective of this study was to gauge women views of transvaginal sonography in an emergency setting and to study any correlation between their perception of the procedure and their prior knowledge and experience of it. We surveyed women presenting with various complications of the first trimester. Only women who had transvaginal sonography and who gave informed consent were included. Four hundred and twenty-five women were recruited. Transvaginal sonography was considered not embarrassing, acceptable, not painful and not stressful by 378 (88.9%), 417 (98.1%), 419 (98.6%) and 385 (90.6%) of the women respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the women's perception of the procedure whether they had prior knowledge and previous experience of the procedure or not. The majority of the women perceived transvaginal sonography favourably. Their perception of the procedure was favourable whether they had prior knowledge and previous experience of it or not.