Medical vs surgical abortion opinions please

[Yorkshir27]

Hi guys, I’m scheduled for my consultation on Thursday and I’ve been reading so many threads on here to help ease my mind.

i am an extremely anxious person and I can’t explain how much stress I’ve been feeling this week and probably will be up until next Thursday. I’m very very scared about the pain I might experience in both methods of abortion but I am leaning slightly towards surgical - I’m only around 6/7 weeks but the idea of waiting so long for the pregnancy to pass and especially at home gives me so much anxiety.

i am thinking of asking for the surgical option because it puts the control into the hands of the doctors and the procedure is a lot quicker and I just want this over and done with.

please if you’ve experienced either recently and have a positive experience could you share? I’m so worried, and scared of potential serious side effects 😔 just really want this over. Thank you ❤️

Thanks so much @Yorkshir27 & @Happyhappyday for replying.

I'm pleased to hear you have been able to book the surgical option but sorry you have to wait 2 weeks, it sounds like the best option for you & hopefully time won't drag. Its so reassuring to hear surgical is still available & I'll definitely try to explain exactly how the thought of the medical route is making me feel.

Wishing you lots of luck for when the date comes

Thank you, it can’t come quick enough. I’m making myself so sick with worry on the lead up. Really struggling to sleep as I’m so tense and wound up. I’m hoping this will alleviate after the abortion but the nurse did tell me that your hormones can drop afterwards for a while. Not looking forward to that if it happens because I already feel pretty depressed

Hi,
I’m in a similar situation to you. My anxiety is awful, when it’s bad I go all dizzy, feel sick and since finding out I’m pregnant (total shock) it’s consuming my every thought. I have an appointment on the 6th September and I know they will probably give me the tablets to have the medical abortion then, but I’m really scared of the pain and side affects ( I have a phobia of being sick)

when I was 16 I had the surgical abortion and for me personally it was very traumatic it’s not nice at all. People tend to have the medical abortion as it’s in the comfort of your own home. Obviously everyone’s experience is completely different… I just want mine over and done with now. I’m sick of feeling sick and not having the energy to do anything and keep thinking of my life before I knew I was pregnant as daft as that sounds… literally never want to have sex again.

Hi @Ellasmithsss bless you, it’s hard isn’t it. I feel like it’s just all consuming I wake up thinking about it and struggling to sleep.

can I ask why you found your surgical traumatic? Was it just because of the stress of being in the clinic or did you have an issue?

sorry you’ve had to go through this twice x

Hi @Yorkshir27,

I had a surgical abortion under local anaesthetic at 9 weeks and 4 days on Tuesday this week and just wanted to let you know it was a much better experience than I was expecting. I suffer from anxiety and I'd read a lot and had been told to expect lots of pain and heavy bleeding after. I had convinced myself that all the scary things they mention (hemorrhaging, damage etc) would happen to me but I knew I wanted a surgical procedure to get it done and so I wasn't on my own after taking tablets and sat waiting in pain for hours for the pregnancy to pass. Ideally I would have had sedation but I didn't have anyone to take me home so I went for the local and it was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting (although I would totally advocate for sedation if that's what you want. I've had it for other procedures in the past and it's been great).

My appointment was at 9am and there was a bit of waiting around, but I was out by 11.30am. Everyone was soooooo kind and caring and I was only in the theatre room for 10 mins and then 15 mins in recovery whilst I had tea and biscuits and a chat. I've had minimal bleeding after and mild cramps but nothing like what I was expecting. For me the hardest part was the 3 week wait and then taking all the antibiotics and antisickness tablets the night before. I was sick so had to have another dose of antibiotics on Tuesday but there was no judgment or issues at all at the clinic, just handed some more and told not to worry about it when I was apologising for being sick.

I feel so much better now it's done. Don't get me wrong, I've been a bit tearful, but I know that's my hormones settling and it hasn't been a major crash like I was expecting.

If you have any questions, please do let me know and I'd be happy to share my experience with you. X

Hey @pinksapphires thanks for that. My appointment is in 6 days, I’m nervous but feel more resolved with my decision and that it has to come out one way or another. And I think SA will be easiest for me also.

im so glad yours went smoothly and you haven’t had much discomfort afterwards. Fingers crossed mine will be the same. I know what you mean about the waiting, by the time I have my procedure I will of been waiting nearly 4 weeks from the first phone call to the clinic. Pleased your hormones aren’t wreaking havoc xx

Thanks so much for sharing your story @pinksapphires, it's really great to hear a positive story 😊. I had my scan on Wednesday & and my phone consultation this morning - they were lovely & have agreed to surgical which i'm booked in for in a couple of weeks. I've gone for local as I wasn't sure if my husband could pick me up. I was expecting a bit of a wait but so glad I can have the method I wanted.
@Yorkshir27 hope you're doing ok and the next 6 days speed by for you.

@Jsh125 glad you got to go for the surgical like you wanted. I’ll let you know how mine goes when it comes along.

it’s been such a great community of women on here and I’ve also used Reddit a bit also. Makes you feel like you’re not going through it on your own. 💐

Joining for the updates. I’m 5 weeks today and just had my phone call to discuss my options. I have opted for surgical with local anaesthetic which soonest date is the 28 September. Reason for not going through with medical is because I can’t swallow tablets as silly as it sounds. I felt like surgical would be best option for me but the thought of having to wait till the 28th is freaking me out. I have major phobia of being sick so worried about that too as I know you have to take Misoprostol to prepare your cervix before the surgical. Feel like I have so many things going on in my head right now

@Yorkshir27 how did you get on? Hope everything went to plan & you're recovering well
Welcome @TTM123 sorry you're in this situation as well, my surgical is next week & can't come soon enough, the sickness has really kicked in! You'll be about the same number of weeks as I will be when you have the procedure, time seems to go so slowly!

@Jsh125 thank you. Please could you update once you’ve had yours? I was thinking I’ll be ringing BPAS next week to see if they’ve had any cancellations and can bring it forward. I luckily am not experiencing any sickness yet but I imagine it will kick in around 6 weeks :( good to have a thread like this for support x

@Jsh125 @TTM123 hi guys!
i had my surgical yesterday and honestly, my anxiety for it was 10 billion times worse than the procedure. It is nerve wracking before hand, and I was upset waiting around but once it was done, I can honestly look back and say that it was easy. As in, if you can grit your teeth and bare it, it’s 100% doable!

the misoprostol tablets didn’t make me feel sick at all, and I had zero cramps. The clinic i went to worked so fast. I got there at 9am, had the tablets at 9:30am, just after 10am they took me to get undressed for the procedure. Before I went to the procedure I chatted to another girl who was waiting and it was comforting to feel like I wasn’t alone.

once I was undressed from the bottom down and had a little sarong around me I went into theatre. I talked to the surgeon and she reassured me, I asked her not to perforate my uterus and she said she can’t promise she won’t but she probably won’t lol. I laid down and the anaesthesiologist reassured me a bit, he was super kind, and told me he’d be putting me to sleep now. I was really nervous but I just looked into his eyes until I fell asleep lol.

I woke up and was drowsy but came round quickly, my cramps were about a 5/10 and they gave me one tablet of codeine. After 15 mins they asked if the pain had gotten easier and it hadn’t so they gave me the other codeine. Tbh, I could of done without it but they offered so I was like yeah why not. Went to the loo and wasn’t really bleeding much and still am not now.

they were about to discharge me but my blood pressure kept dropping but I’m very susceptible to fainting when I haven’t eaten much anyway so I just ate more biscuits and drank loads of juice.

i was in recovery for like an hour and a half but most girls were leaving after 45 mins. I felt fine when I went home and had pizza. Was shocked at how easy it was, really thought I’d be traumatised but it was fine.

i hope you girls aren’t worrying as much as I was, I honestly made myself sick with worry but the actual experience was fine for me! If you have any questions you can send me a private message if you like or comment on this thread. ❤️❤️❤️

@Yorkshir27 I am so glad it went well and wasn’t as bad you expected. It’s normal for us to overthink. I worry about every fine detail about EVERYTHING and it is so frustrating! Out of interest did they offer for you to have the misoprostrol vaginally rather than orally? I really don’t want to get ill from taking the tablet as ridiculous as it sounds as more than likely sickness will start to kick in soon for me anyway.

Hey, no I think they have to do it orally because of the surgical procedure. They give you an anti nausea and paracetamol at the same time though! They also just had me spit the tablets out after 30 mins rather than swallow

Also not likely that you’ll be sick because you have to fast! And not drink water so there wouldn’t be anything in there to throw up x

@Yorkshir27 interesting because on my information sheet it doesn’t ask me to fast. I wonder if it’s because I’ll be having local and not general? Thanks for the information 😁

Oh yeah it will be then!! One of my friends had local and I think they advised her to eat something light before hand :-)

Thanks so much for sharing your story @Yorkshir27. So pleased for you that it turned out much better than expected and all that stressful waiting is over. Hope you continue to recover well & thanks again for all your info & support.

@TTM123 I've opted for local anaesthetic so I'm really happy to share my experience too once I've had the appointment.

Definitely worth a call to bpas to see if there's an earlier appointment. My local clinic only does the procedure every 2 weeks hence my wait. It's been a weird old time with this massive secret (aside from my husband) & feeling like total rubbish the last week with the sickness - so nice to have people who are in the same situation even if we all wish we weren't 😊

@Jsh125 @TTM123 oh yeah if you want an earlier appointment definitely keep trying them! Apparently people cancel all of the time. Can you ask if you can be on a standby list for an earlier appointment too? The clinic I went to had a list so that if someone didn’t turn up on the day, they would call someone on the list the morning of.

you guys will be fine, I had a few days while I was waiting where I was thinking, should I just take the pills and have it done with? But the surgical was so easy and quick I’m glad I waited and didn’t put myself through that potentially painful experience.

good luck girls you’ve got this! ❤️

So glad it went well for you @Yorkshir27 :)

I'm 11 days post my surgical now. Had cramps on day 5 for about an hour but that was all. Still bleeding but it's very light. Feeling much better physically so all is good.

@Jsh125 @TTM123 I had a local anaesthetic and was fine. You can eat and drink normally beforehand, although they advice eating light rather than too heavy just incase the local anaesthetic makes you sick.

@TTM123 I know what you mean about sickness. Sadly I was sick with the pregnancy and with the antisickness and antibiotics the night before surgery, but this wasn't a problem, I just had to have more antibiotics on the day. I would recommend speaking to bpas about not being able to take tablets (I struggle too) as there were 7 tablets to take the day before (5 to swallow, 2 to dissolve) and then 4 ibuprofen on the day plus paracetamol if I'd wanted it. I also had to have 3 more antibiotic tablets due to being sick. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but would rather you be prepared for the tablet taking

Hey @pinksapphires thanks for sharing your story, glad all went well for you too.

Wow, can't believe there's so many pills to take! I've only been asked to come in at the appointment time & nothing before that so assume they give you everything at the same time?

I know it sounds awful but I cannot wait for my appointment. I feel like my body is no longer my own, I'm sick of feeling sick all the time, no appetite & am so tired I feel like I'm just existing. My poor kids must wonder what on earth is wrong with me!

Hi @Jsh125 :)

I was surprised too. My experience at BPAS was...

x1 Mifepristone tablet 24 hours before my appointment.

Then as last as possible the evening before...

x2 antisickness tablets (dissolved between lip and gum for half an hour).

x4 antibiotic tablets taken in one dose half an hour after the antisickness tablets. Mustn't lie down for min 30 mins after.

Morning of procedure...

x4 ibuprofen tablets (800mg total).

Then because I was sick within 2 hours of taking the antibiotics (so much for antisickness tablets 🙈), I had to have 3 more antibiotic tablets on the day of the surgery, one before, then the other 2 at 4 hour intervals.

I got given all the meds (except ibuprofen) at my scan appointment.

I know what you mean about wanting your body back. I feel soooooo much better now. People don't seem to talk about how hard early pregnancy is do they?

@pinksapphires they really don't! I don't remember it being this hideous with my two children but maybe I just felt differently about those pregnancies so sucked it up & got on with it rather than felt sorry for myself!. I can't eat anything that's not beige 😂. The sickness is the only thing making me question my decision to opt for surgical over medical. I honestly couldn't put up with this for another 5 plus weeks.

How long did it take for the sickness to settle down for you after you'd had the surgical?

So glad to have people willing to share their stories, it helps so much 😊

It's good to hear you don't remember your other pregnancies being so hard @Jsh125 , that gives me hope for the future so thank you x

Nausea, sickness and bloating were gone by the next day and my appetite and energy were back 2/3 days later. Breast soreness lingered for a week or so.

When's your appointment? x

No worries, this feels so very different - possibly because of my different feelings towards this pregnancy (plus I'm a few years older!) but I definitely don't remember it being so unpleasant. Wishing you a much easier time with any future pregnancy 😊

Glad the symptoms eased quickly, the nausea & sickness is the main one killing me at the moment. I can cope with the tiredness just about so it's good to hear those eased off quickly.

Appointment is Thursday, so nearly there!