Medical abortion - is this normal?

[Girlinengland]

Hello!

I began the process for a medical abortion this week. I took my first pill on Thursday evening, and then 4 pills orally on Saturday morning plus codeine.

Saturday was horrible - the codeine didn't even put a dent in my pain and I was in absolute agony while throwing up. I have been bleeding since then. I also passed a jelly like cream colored clot (no clue if this is the pregnancy) but no blood clots. Should I be worried that I passed no clots?

By Sunday (yesterday) I was in mild pain, but my main issue was exhaustion. I think I slept most of the day and could barely stand for 20 minutes without needing another full sleep.

Today I am in a lot of pain again with cramping, but no temperature. I am however still absolutely exhausted. I am even exhausted staring at the screen to write this.

I am worried about why the pain has ramped up again, why I'm still so ridiculously tired and why I've passed no clots. It's been 3 days since the second lot of pills and I really thought my symptoms would die down by now.

I guess I'm just looking for reassurance :( thank you x

I'm going to ask the obvious question - have you tried contacting an out of hours doctor or NHS 111 service (or similar if not in the UK?). Any medical procedure carries the risk of complications and it would be really unwise to count on unqualified advice here. Sorry to hear you're having a rotten time

Thank you! I called the NUPAS helpline but they were a bit blasé and said “give us a call back in 24 hours if you’re still worried.”

I thought about NHS direct but don’t want to make a huge deal about this if it’s truly nothing - especially as I don’t have a temperature so would assume it’s v unlikely I have an infection. Just wondered about others experiences really

You might need more pessaries. I had a similar reaction, and needed to collect and insert more to fully ‘evacuate’ the pregnancy. Good luck with the rest of your procedure, the pain is awful.

I think if you are still in pain then I'd call 111 or at least go on nhs online and speak to the live chat.

You might just need some extra pills or a check to see if everything is gone. In my experience (and not everyone is the same) once the pregnancy passed the pain did too.

You're not wasting anyones time and the NHS can advise you better than here.

My NHS trust has started running this service themselves, because of the amount of women coming through with incomplete terminations from BPAS and MSI etc so chances are 111 will have plenty of experience in this and can put your mind at rest or direct you to additional treatment.

Honestly I know how you feel! I also done my first lot of tablets on Thursday and my second lot on Saturday. I’m also going through the same. On Saturday I knew I passed the pregnancy as after this the cramps completely pretty much went but I was still bleeding. My bleeding has been on and off since but yesterday (Monday) I started to bleed more again and have had dull cramping again. I also done the same I took my temperature as I thought I could have an infection but my temperature was fine and I have no foul smell.
I’m literally worrying myself sick about this too as I can’t find much information anywhere and when I have called the hotline they said it’s quite normal to have like a heavy period and if I’m not flooding my pads it’s normal?
Have you not passed any clots on the toilet and maybe not realised? I’ve passed a few clots but most of the time this has been down the toilet.
I hope you’re okay! I didn’t realise how stressful this would be so I know how you feel x

Poor thing. So sorry to hear you are going through this, OP.

Is there any nausea in addition to your other symptoms? Or do you generally feel okay, just the pain and exhaustion?

If it's the latter, I'd try not to worry, but I would also definitely call 111 as opposed to taking advice from MNers.

If it's the former, please contact NUPAS immediately as this could mean you are actually still pregnant and need to have an actual physical vacuum procedure. This happened to me and it was one of the hardest things I've ever been through. Just awful.

Wishing you all the best and please take care of yourself, OP. A medical abortion is a medical procedure just like any other.

Thank you so much for all your replies and support

I have woken up with a headache and more cramping as well as nausea (could be from the headache though) and I’m waiting for a nurse to call me back, but this could be anytime between now and 6pm so I may try NHS Direct soon.

@NicolaLauren16x oh we have the same timeline! How many weeks were you? I would’ve been 7 on Sunday and was told it can be normal not to see clots so early on. Are you feeling any better now? Feel free to DM me if you want to chat and share notes!x

Hoping you're OK @Girlinengland and that NHS 111 have called you back by now. Be as assertive as possible and if you think something's not right, don't be afraid to go to A&E if you still feel poorly or don't feel confident in the advice from 111. If you don't want to say why you're there in the waiting room, you can pass the receptionist a note or hold it up to the window.

Thanks so much! I actually ended up speaking to a nurse at NUPAS who said to stand up and walk around as it would help the cramps. I walked around the house for an hour and then lay down in agony before deciding to and have a shower and then I passed some bloody tissue and felt a million times better. Cramps have started up again now but very mildly.

I’m so struck by the lack of information out there after an abortion. Nobody tells you what’s normal and what’s not, nobody tells you that it’s normal to be teary etc… the abortion providers just give you some condoms (which annoyed me so much as I got pregnant on the pill!) and send you on your way without so much as a blood test or a follow up call from a nurse a week after the pills. I find that very impersonal and I think it’s what makes me (and other) women worry that something has gone wrong. Has anyone else had anything similar?

Thanks so much all!

That sounds like an awful experience, I'm glad you're feeling a bit better now. Hopefully the information out there will get better as more women feel brave enough to come forwards and share how they felt.

You poor thing. What an awful experience.