Medical abortion booked

[Purplerain101]

I have a medical abortion booked for 9 days time (i’ll be 5 and half weeks when I get it done). I’m getting all 4 pills given to me at the same time as I’m having to go to a clinic an hour away from where I live (I don’t drive) so they are going to just do it all on the same day granted that everything looks ok on the internal ultrasound etc.
I’ve had a surgical abortion before 9 years ago when I was 9 weeks pregnant (without anaesthetic) and it was horrendous. I’m expecting this to be very unpleasant too with really bad pain for a few hours and then heavy bleeding for a while. Can anyone put my mind at rest as I suffer from health anxiety and I’m getting myself worked up about it. Thank you

Thank you :-)

Bump

Hi there!

I had a medical abortion at 7 weeks 1 day a few months ago. I took all the medication on the same day. The cramps start pretty light then slowly get more painful, they came and went though. I would suggest getting a hot water bottle as that really helps and taking your pain killers on time to take the edge off.

It is painful however the pain is temporary and easily managed.

I've had a medical abortion very early on 6 weeks I was expecting it to be awful after reading so many scary stories on good old google however it wasn't as bad i expected at all I took two parcetomol and two nurofen incase it was painful - I experienced no pain at all and just in case I kept up with the nurofen every 6 hours.

I have terrible anxiety about things like nausea and dizziness. I’m petrified I’m going to feel really sick. I’m hoping that because I’m so early in my pregnancy that the side effects will be a bit more minimal. Hopefully I can cope with the bad cramping as I suffer with terrible cramps that leave me doubled over with my periods most months. I do remember the cramps after my surgical abortion were awful but had gone away by the next day.
Thanks for your messages, it’s really reassuring speaking to others who have experienced it

Anyone else?

No experience of this but just wanted to say it might be worth asking to have this thread moved to the Pregnancy Choices section as you will probably get more replies here...

Thanks have asked for it to be moved

Hello, I had this procedure last Wednesday with Marie stopes. I was actually booked for the surgical procedure under sedation however due to some changes on the day out of their control it was either I rebook or go for the medical - the thought of another 2 weeks waiting sent me into a panic so I opted for the medical to have all the tablets on the same day.
I was given x2 antibiotics and x1 anti sickness to start followed by the pill I was then given the 4 tablets to insert and was asked to do it myself if possible however they would do it for your if you feel you would struggle or just genuinely wanted them to do it. After I did the 4 tablets I sat in the waiting area for just 10 mins to make sure everything was okay before they let me home. I had these tablets at 12.30 and within half an hour I did have a few tummy twinges however I just loaded up on ibruprofen, buscapan (great for menstral cramps) and paracetimal and that was fine. Nothing actually happened until 22.30 where I got up and I just ‘felt something’ in my pad I immediately went to the toilet and I passed everything right there and then - I was expecting some kind of massacre from some of the stories I’ve read on here but it was quite the opposite . I started to have just a few period like pains so I then took another couple of the above and within 20 mins I was fine and took myself to bed with a hot water bottle. The last few days I’ve just had what looks like usual ‘period’ type blood. All in all I have to say it’s been completely drama free and I was expecting a hell of lot worse. That being said, I have an appointment to get the coil fitted on the first of feb and I will never lapse on contra ever again 🙈!
I hope this puts your mind at rest a little xxx

Sorry just to mention as I forgot i was 6 weeks exactly when I had the medical xx

Thank you for your post. It’s really helpful! There are so many horror stories online but apparently some of the worst ones are written by anti abortion activists trying to put women off from doing it. I’m
Sure some of them are true though as everyone reacts differently to these things. Did you eat normally before the medication? The thing I’m most scared of is bad nausea/sickness x

I hadn’t eaten but that was because I was actually meant to have the surgical! But I’ll be honest on the way home my husband grabbed me a MacDonald’s and I ate the lot🙈 and I had zero nausea/sickness infact I’m sure that tablet made me hungrier! They give you anti sickness before you take the tablet xxx

Did you take the ibuprofen etc before or after you took the pills? Can’t wait for it to all be over xxx

So the nurse only gave me the brufen there at the same time as everything else, I went home and took the rest but to be honest I didn’t even need it really until after i passed it then I had a few pains but I just took them as I’m such a wimp when it comes to pain! 😅 Keep yourself well hydrated because that helps prevent and ease cramps xxx

I have one booked for next Thursday and I'm terrified too. I hope yours goes well

Hope you’ll be ok. I just really hope I don’t get the sickness and diarrhoea and dizziness with the medication as that will make the experience a million times worse

Hi, i just wanted to say firstly that im really sorry to hear that you are going through this hard and challenging time right now. Having an abortion is not always just about having the procedure done but how you will cope mentally too.
Im 37 yrs and have 4 children, my 4th (a lovely dd) was a result of a surgical procedure that , well to put it bluntly never worked . But obviously wouldnt change her for the world now. My decision to have one in the 1st place was obviously i had 3 children already my 3rd has Aspergers and severe ADHD. I also had my 1st surgical some good few years ago which was incomplete and it gave me a chronic infection (not nice). I also have what they call a bicornuate uterus (2wombs) this could of been the reasons for the complications i had. So when i found out just after xmas 2017 that i was pregnant again you can imagine i was quite distraught and so angry with myself forgetting into this situation again. Well I made the arrangements that I needed to make and I found out that I was just over 11 weeks so they booked me in for a surgical a few days later but on the day before the doctor there phoned me to say I want you to come down now and have a medical as the complications you've had in the past they wasn't comfortable with me having surgical there and I might have to wait 5 weeks for an NHS hospital to do the procedure well by now I'm 12 weeks and 3 days so that me was not an option so I went down there that day to take my first lot of pills I felt fine enough the following day I went there and took 4 pills that had to dissolve in my mouth and told to go straight home once I put them in my mouth. Yes I got cramping pains slightly uncomfortable nothing that ibuprofen and paracetamol wouldn't sort out I did start to bleed a few hours later unfortunately I wasn't sitting on the toilet when I got this immense feeling. I can only describe it as if you're just coming on the feeling you get when you know that you're starting to bleed but quite heavily. Like I said I wasn't on the toilet and I expelled the pregnancy in my underwear. I really don't want to upset you or scare you or make you apprehensive I just want to share my story with you if it all helps. I was told to flush whatever came out down the toilet it will just be a load of blood clots some big and some small but what I saw was not a blood clot I won't go into too much detail but I know it was scar me for life I just want to say to you the pain is bearable and doesn't last long at all just if you can try and shut yourself off from the situation and don't look down as this could be wear the mental torture would then kick in it's been 4 days since and my the bleeding is just like the end of the period very light for the first day it was very heavy and then just slowed down a bit once the pregnancy has ended the pain usually goes also.
I really hope everything goes ok and I hope I've not scared you at all that was not my intention just want to prepare you really cos if you're told that you're going to pass a blood clot that's quite thick my advice is it's not going to be a big thick blood clot. My thoughts I with you and I hope all goes well please keep us informed on your outcome and how you're doing take care

Thanks for sharing your experience. Hope you are feeling a lot better now, it’s definitely a very traumatic thing to go through. This will be my 2nd abortion (had a surgical one a few years ago) and I’ve also had a miscarriage before. I think I’m prepared for the cramps as I’m guessing they will be similar to the ones I had during my miscarriage which were very painful but not completely unbearable and the painkillers definitely helped a lot. I’m only just 5 weeks pregnant so I’m hoping I won’t have as much to pass as someone at a later stage. I’ve been told that the baby doesn’t even have a heart beat yet and is the size of a sesame seed inside the yolk sack. I will be taking all of the pills on the same day and then sent home afterwards (different clinics do it different ways) so I’m kind of glad I can just get it all over in the same day. After my surgical abortion I bled heavily for about a week and then lightly for another few weeks.

Yes your right i miss read earlier thought you had written 9 wks gone but reading it back i realise now you wrote going in 9 days so apologies for that, but yes 5 wks is still very early days i only could wish i had known at that stage it obviously would of been alot easier. But back to you ... Dont feel anxious and like you have said the pain is not totally unbearable. After taking the 2nd dose of tabs you will bleed quite abit but it will probably be no different to when you miscarried and once its passed it will ease down. You have nothing to worry about or be scared of i do wish u the best and hope all goes to plan but pls let me know how u get on.
Take care 🍀

@Purplerain101 is yours on Tuesday? Mine is. Early Tuesday morning. Just terrified they won't be able to see it and tell me to come back - will be 3 weeks and 4 days since conception so I should be dated 5+4 hopefully. I've had a medical before at this stage and it was genuinely absolutely fine, I barely felt it to be honest was just a really heavy period. We're in this together (sort of wish we knew each other so we could actually go together!!) x

@stressed thank you and I will let you know how it goes.xxx

@namechange mine is early Tue morning too. Is yours with BPAS? Mine is at the Leicester one (I don’t live there but the ones nearer mine were booked up for a month. It will take me 45 mins to get home so I hope nothing starts before then).
I am having an internal scan as they won’t be able to see it on a normal ultrasound at such an early stage. I’ve been told to have an empty bladder for the internal scan. Try not to worry about them sending you away for being too early into the pregnancy. I’ll be 5 weeks 4 days too and have been assured that they will be able to see from 5 weeks onwards.
Did you have other side effects like nausea, diarrhoea or dizziness from the tablets? I’m hoping that happens a bit later on in pregnancy and mine will be more straight forward. Sending you lots of luck for Tue and I’m sure you will be ok xxx

@Purplerain101 thank you for that you've put my mind at rest slightly, I really hope they can see it. I'm at BPAS but in west London sadly - appointment is 8:30 so am hoping to be out by the afternoon.

I got no dizziness or sickness at all, I was stocked up on painkillers and honestly had less cramps than a usual period. the bleeding was heavy but I'm used to that so it didn't bother me, it's just tiring! It will take me 45 mins to get the tube home too so am praying nothing happens, but from what I remember it was an hour or two before anything happened anyway, felt some twinges on the way home last time but no blood!

We are very early so the blood is mostly that and a few tiny clots, it's honestly not traumatic (or wasn't for me) and the actual bleeding is the part I'm the least anxious about!

I think i conceived on 6th jan, am hoping that's enough time to see it on the internal scan. My periods are very irregular due to PCOS so I have to go by date of conception really!

Hope you can relax a bit this weekend before Tuesday x

I very recently had a medical abortion at 5 weeks and other than the pain with cramps it was ok.

It took about 12 hours for the bleeding and cramping to properly start, and before that I just had mild pains. Even at their worst they just felt like a bad, heavy period.

As others have said, keep on top of the pain with painkillers and keep a hot water bottle nearby.

I would also keep an eye on the amount you bleed. If you bleed through 2 pads in 2 hours I think it is, they advise you to go to a&e. But they will tell you more about that at the appointment.

I hope it all goes smoothly for you OP