Hi! Apologies to everyone reading if my terminology isn’t what is usually used on here, this is it first time using it.
Prior to my medical abortion, I was very nervous and borderline panicked about what to expect. I’d read a lot of horror stories about the process but also a lot of positive ones. I’d like to contribute mine to help anyone who was in my position!
To begin, for anyone in a similar situation to mine, I am 19 and a university student. My life right now is not an environment I want to introduce any child to. Fortunately, my partner (and the father if you could consider him that) was incredibly supportive and agreed with whatever decision I made although he agreed that our best option was termination. The pregnancy occurred due to worries about my health with the contraceptive I was on at the time. All purely accidental.
Before the process
Pre-warning, this could be quite convoluted to everyone else. Apologies if it is, I’m trying my best to lay it out so people can understand.
Upon finding out I was pregnant, I contacted my GP who referred me to BPAS. I rang them and had a scan appointment for Thursday the week after and then a phone call consultation for the Monday after that.
My scan appointment turned out not to be a scan appointment at all. I had told them over the initial phone call I was experiencing pain but because the pain was only period cramp like, apparently a scan wasn’t needed. The lady conducting my appointment was incredibly understanding and kind and I do not blame her at all for what occurred after!
My consultation phone call was with a midwife who I cannot praise enough! She was so kind and helpful, she deserves so much praise for the job she does! We discussed how far along I was and due to my last period (which I tracked) I was at the latest 9 weeks 5 days. Reminder, this was on the Monday. I didn’t know this but the cut off for a medical abortion is 9 weeks and 6 days so I should’ve had a scan to see exactly how far along I was. She was incredibly reassuring though and we figured out a solution. My two choices (because it would take too long to mail to me) were to travel via train the morning after to a larger BPAS clinic to get the tablets or hope that my local clinic could fit me in that day to give me the tablets in person. She did all the work, rang my local clinic and booked me in! Nothing was left down to me other than collection which I was grateful for. (To note, I was also able to get a surgical abortion but I was highly nervous about this and wanted to avoid it if possible.) So on the Monday, I went to my local clinic, collected my tablet pack and went home.
Before the next part, I do suspect I wasn’t as far along as BPAS thought but of course they have to go by period dates. I think I was more so 7-8 weeks.
During the process
On the Monday, I took the Mifepristone around 12PM. If it did give me nausea (which I was warned was the biggest side effect), I didn’t notice it because I was already suffering from awful nausea as it was! I had some light bleeding and very light period-like cramps which were barely noticeable.
On the Tuesday (the day I’m writing this), I took 3 Ibuprofen around 12.50PM. At 1.30PM I inserted the 4 Misoprostol vaginally as I didn’t think I could handle the side effects of taking it orally. I overthought this process a lot, please don’t if you’re in the same position. As long as you place it as high as you can, all should be good! This was also the most panicked I had been during this process, I felt the dread of “no going back now” which made me feel worse I believe.
For three hours I experienced mild period cramps and very little bleeding. It wasn’t what I expected at all and totally manageable. For some perspective, I absolutely could’ve went about my day to day life with it although I wouldn’t recommend that. Keep yourself relaxed if at all possible! (I know that isn’t a possibility for a lot of people.)
I inserted the second dose of Misoprostol vaginally again (2 tablets) and waited. Again I was very panicked but I was very lucky to have the support of my partner and parent. This is when things became more uncomfortable. After about 20 minutes the cramps ramped up but I wouldn’t describe them as any worse than a bad period cramp. Very manageable without pain medication as the Ibuprofen I believe probably wore off by then. Of course things are different for every lady but my personal experience was unless I was about to pass a clot or ‘waterfall’ (a lot of blood leaving my body), the cramps didn’t become anything that made me pause and collect myself. I passed 3 clots with an hour between each (nothing noticeable if anyone is worrying about that). First wasn’t anything too big, second was about the size of a lemon as I was told may happen (the cramps were quite bad before this clot but only for around 10-15 minutes) and the third wasn’t anything too big either. Quite a bit of heavy bleeding in between.
After the process
It’s now nearly 9 hours after I began this process and other than feeling a bit sore I’m completely okay! I still have mild cramps but manageable with Ibuprofen (didn’t touch the codeine prescribed but please do take it if needed) and heavy bleeding (no clots other than your typical period clots).
Personal thoughts
This process was a lot less scary and painful than I expected. I’d like to highlight how accommodating and understanding BPAS were.
If this is the right choice for you, do it. Put yourself and your life first and just know that everything will be okay! It’s not easy but it’s not impossible and I can promise you’ll be a lot stronger than anything this process can throw at you! If it helps, count down the time until it should be over (for me it lasted about 6-7 hours).
I may update in a few days if anyone is interested in any after effects. But again, do what’s best for you and best of luck to anyone else!
<3