TPAL is one of the methods to provide a quick overview of a female's obstetric history. Two other methods often used are gravida/para and GPA

Gravida/para/abortus

Gravida/para/abortus , or sometimes just gravida/para , is a shorthand notation for a woman's obstetric history.* Gravida indicates the number of times the mother has been pregnant, regardless of whether these pregnancies were carried to term. A current pregnancy, if any, is included in this...

.

In TPAL, the T refers to term births (after 37 weeks gestation), the P refers to premature births, the A refers to abortions, and the L refers to living children. The TPAL is described by numbers separated by hyphens. Multiple births (twins

TWINS

Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers are a pair of NASA instruments aboard two United States National Reconnaissance Office satellites in Molniya orbits. TWINS was designed to provide stereo images of the Earth's ring current. The first instrument, TWINS-1, was launched aboard USA-184...

, triplets and higher multiples) count as one birth.

For example, a pregnant woman who carried one pregnancy to term with a surviving infant; carried one pregnancy to 35 weeks with surviving twins; carried one pregnancy to 9 weeks as an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy; and has 3 living children would have a TPAL annotation of T1, P1, A1, L3. This could also be written as 1-1-1-3.

Note, the "abortions" number refers to the total number of induced abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

s and miscarriage

Miscarriage

Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...

s or ectopic pregnancies.

The term "GTPAL" is used when the TPAL is prefixed with gravidity

Gravidity

In medicine, gravidity refers to the number of times a woman has been pregnant, regardless of whether the pregnancies were interrupted or resulted in a live birth....

, and "GTPALM" when GTPAL is followed by number of multiple pregnancies.

See also

• Gravidity
  Gravidity
  In medicine, gravidity refers to the number of times a woman has been pregnant, regardless of whether the pregnancies were interrupted or resulted in a live birth....
  
  
• Parity (medicine)
  Parity (medicine)
  In biology, parity is a technical term that refers to the number of times a female has given birth to a fetus.It can lead to some ambiguity for events occurring between 20 and 24 weeks, and for multiple pregnancies.-Enumeration:...
  
  
• Ectopic pregnancy
  Ectopic pregnancy
  An ectopic pregnancy, or eccysis , is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the uterine cavity. With rare exceptions, ectopic pregnancies are not viable. Furthermore, they are dangerous for the parent, since internal haemorrhage is a life threatening complication...