Medicalese 101: Gs and Ps

G’s and P’s: An abbreviation of an abbreviation of a woman’s pregnancy history. I use the longer GTPAL system.

G stands for gravida, meaning the number of times a woman has been pregnant.

P (para) is the number of deliveries a woman has had. It is further split into TPAL.

T is for number of pregnancies that went to full term.

P is the number of preterm deliveries she had.

A (abortus) is the number of pregnancies she has had that did not result in live birth.

L is for the number of living children she has.

So, for example, a G5P3114 woman has been pregnant 5 times, had 4 live children, 3 of which were term births, 1 preterm birth, and 1 miscarriage/abortion.

The system gets more complicated when you factor in twins or deaths of children.