Medical v surgical

[geordiegal87]

Pros/cons?
I'm 9 weeks. Been told I can have a surgical MVA in 2 weeks time at 11 weeks, or have the pills sent home. They've sent them anyway and just asked I return them if I decide to go surgical.
I wanted to do it at home originally but being 9 weeks I am really scared of the pain and seeing anything recognisable.
I dread the thought of waiting another 2 weeks for surgical though, that seems like a lifetime.

I had a SA at 9 weeks because I waited to have it. I could have had a MA at 7 weeks but I bleed loads and seeing anything pregnancy related would have just broken me even more.

I definitely made the right choice to go SA but it was so very hard been 9 weeks so I can’t really comment on waiting till 11.

I had both medical & surgical (can't believe I found myself in this situation not once but twice).

Both were between 7&8 weeks so a little sooner than you, both had good & bad points so not sure I could say one was a clear preference but medical was probably better for me. It's such a personal thing though so appreciate my experience won't be everyone elses.

Medical was done in my own home at a time that worked for me & it was my decision when that was. The heavy bleeding was over within a few hours & the pain was absolutely fine. I'm fortunate I don't get painful periods so not sure if that had any bearing on the pain. Bleeding was like a heavy period after the first 12 hours max, it was really manageable & nowhere near as bad as I expected. Not even close. Test was negative when follow up test was needed & recovery was completely fine.

Surgical I had to wait 2 weeks for as well as they only had a surgical list every other week at my local centre. I was having awful morning sickness so every day was just unpleasant. It was obviously more of a medical procedure so it just made me so much more aware of what I was doing, there were scan, blood tests, medical id bracelets, surgical gowns & all of that - just so much more of an ordeal I found. Plus there were other women there at the same time waiting to go in & in recovery so felt like a bit of a conveyor belt, the staff were so lovely but it was just a weird experience.
Actual procedure is over quickly but was painful with strong cramps afterwards (worse than with medical for me)
Bleeding wise it was minimal but went on for a long time.
I bled for a month & then had a positive test, had to go for another scan & turned out I had retained products so had to have procedure repeated. That was unlucky as it's uncommon.

Hope sharing my experience has helped, feel free to ask anything if it's useful 😊.

Thankyou. I took the pills for a MA today. So far just period cramps and some bleeding nothing huge passed nothing huge so I'm terrified it hasn't really worked.

How are you doing this morning?

Light cramps I've bled through the night but only enough for one pad. Something in me tells me this isn't enough for 9 weeks and it will have failed.

Hopefully things will start moving for you soon. I remember it definitely took a while for things to kick in then once they did it all happened pretty quickly from there.

If I remember rightly I got given the standard number of pills (4?) & then a couple more as well which I was told to take if bleeding didn't start or wasn't much.

Can you call the aftercare line or similar if you're worried?

Hope things move along for you soon

I rang this morning and they said I have to wait until Tuesday before anything can be done as it can take 5 days. Surely it can't have been it yesterday it was literally just like a period. I'm absolutely terrified I've gone through all this and it hasn't worked. I'd told myself the worst would be over in 4 hours as I was so scared and now I've got unknown ahead of me. I hate this.

Wow, sorry they said they can't help until Tuesday - that must feel like an age away.

How have things been during the rest of the day? Hope things have moved along & you feel like it's having some sort of effect

Nothing today. Really light bleeding, a few light cramps. Rang the Careline this morning and they said as I had some bleeding and cramps last night that was probably it and that I'm overthinking, but I've honestly gone through more pads on a normal period than this. They said it can take 5 days to happen so I just need to chill out. Alot easier said than done. On the plus side if it was it last night then I've one hell of a positive story to post!

Fingers crossed they are right & that was it, not knowing either way is hard though isn't it as you don't know whether it's truly worked or not.

If you've got some cheapie tests you could take one in a few days & see, mine lightened drastically after the main bleed, still absolutely positive but so much lighter so levels must have been dropping. I know it's not a scientifically accurate thing & line darkness can often mean nothing but it definitely gave me a bit of reassurance something had happened.

I’m so sorry that you went through this, and to bring it up again after so long.. you probably won’t see this but I’m in a similar situation and trying to decide between medical or surgical. I’ve heard so many stories about medical ending up with surgical anyway, and I wondered if you see this, if you’d be ok to share what happened in the end and if the medical did manage to treat it for you - I hope so. Any advice would be so appreciated, thanks so much.

Hi. Yes it all worked. Went for a scan and was told it was a positive termination. I'm pleased I went for medical in the end. I'm always about if you want to chat x

Thank you so much for getting back to me. I’m glad it went ok for you. In the end I’m booked for surgical tomorrow, praying it goes smoothly x

Surgical is meant to be really fast, atleast it's over and done with in a relatively short space of time. Let me know how it goes x

Had the MVA yesterday with local anesthetic, it was “successful” and no perforations which is a relief. Thank you @geordiegal87 for being so kind.

Just in case this is helpful to anyone else seeing this though - I think it was probably the wrong choice for me as it was total agony. I’d read so many women saying it wasn’t too painful so I hoped I’d be ok, but I think it’s really individual, and if you’re someone like me who has found IUD fittings, HyCoSy and sometimes even just speculum unmanageable, then I’d really consider going under general. I’m really not a fan of it which is why I wanted to avoid, but if I ever have to do this again, which I pray I don’t, then I would choose to be sedated.

Happy to try and help anyone else trying to figure out what to do xx