In the midst of medical termination at 6.5 weeks

[meepmeep28]

Hi! I’m going through a medical termination at ~6.5 weeks. It really helped me to read people’s experiences. Bit of background- I have VERY heavy periods with two or three days of heavy bleeding and gushing with clots, (changing a super plus tampon every hour or so during the day and waking up 3+ times overnight to change pad) followed by super light bleeding for a few days. They are not painful at all and have never been so I’m not used to cramps.

I’m a big wimp with pain - I’ve had two inductions and needed pain relief for both, I eventually had epidurals with both my labours, and I have had two c sections after which I asked for morphine every chance I could. Moral of the story- I use every pain med available because I have a very low pain threshold.

I’ve prepared with maternity pads I had left over though nurse says I won’t need these, lucozade sports, gummy bears, protein bars, a hot water bottle, and some pain meds.

Here’s my experience so far (a few hours in):

1pm Friday - took first pill
7pm Saturday - took two paracetamol and one dihydrocodiene

8pm- four misoprostol vaginally. laid down for 45 min. Went downstairs and did some laundry (the show must go on!)

9pm - bleeding started and I’m passing small clots. Took two ibuprofen.

10pm - some cramps. Passed some bigger clots and a lot more blood in toilet. Pad had slight blood on it.

so far, my cramps have been mild and have been coming in vague waves but it’s more like suddenly I realise they’ve stopped after about 15-20 min of continuous cramps. At two hours in they are manageable and to be honest maybe a 3/10. I’ve had worse GI pain with an upset stomach.

im starting to feel nauseous again (mifepristone made me insanely nauseous all day) Could also be a result of only eating gummy bears since 5pm 🤷🏼‍♀️

Update:
11pm - some more clots and lots of blood in toilet. Hardly any blood on pad. I changed it around 10:30 and it was not even 1/4 filled since 8pm. Most of the bleeding has occurred in the toilet.
took two more paracetamol and another diydrocodiene.

In an unexpected development, I’ve had absolutely zero cramps since 10pm, but I have now taken three different pain medicines (paracetamol, dihydrocodiene, and ibuprofen) and I’ve had a hot water bottle on my stomach.
but when I say no cramps, I mean absolutely none.

away to take the last two misoprostol, by mouth, and chill for the required 30 min as they dissolve. Weirdly worried about this.
its about midnight now and I’m exhausted - it’s way past my normal bed time and the dihydrocodiene won’t be helping things. husband is snoring away next to me and I’m so jealous.

will update later in case my experience helps anyone like other people’s helped me in the lead up to the termination.

Another update:
12am- put the last two misoprostol under the tongue and it was fine, no idea why I was worried about that specific thing. Go health anxiety!

1:30am - took two Ibuprofen. Very hungry all of the sudden.
pain meds are obviously working as I have had some strong pressure but still absolutely no pain for the past hour. hoping the second dose kicked things into gear and everything will be passed soon. Still passing clots and lots of blood in toilet but again pad has relatively little blood on it.

am going to attempt to sleep for a bit.

First of all, how are you? Hopefully sleeping it all off.

Thank you, this is very helpful. I took the first tablet last night and will stock up on the supplies you suggested for tonight(or tomorrow if i chicken out) Maybe not gummy bears - not a fan. I'm considering some multivitamins, maybe pregnecare, as I don't take any at the moment and I'm feeling very tired and worried about animia when i misscary. I had it with my first pregnancy and I didn't take pregnecare or similar, just folic acid and vitamin d. But I know iron takes a while to build up... and I'm just 7 weeks.

I can't have codine because I am breastfeeding, midwives were quite positive about it being not too difficult, especially as my 2nd, most recent birth was quick and I did it on codine and gas and air. You are not a wimp having an epidural with inductions, I did with my first those are painful. With my second, I was in and saying I need painkillers, they gave me codine... didn't seem to do much.

Anyway, I'll add my experience, hope it's helpful.

Hi xx I’m doing good thank you. Hope you are doing well!
fingers crossed I’m through with the worst of it - bleeding has really tapered off and I’ve had no pain at all other than a few mild cramps. I actually ended up falling asleep before taking my last dose of pain meds and when I woke up I found I didn’t need anymore and haven’t at all today.

bleeding was heavy from about midnight to 8 am but since is way less than a normal period for me. I’m sure it’ll probably get heavier when I go to work and walk around tomorrow.

I felt very faint around 8 am when I attempted to go downstairs and make my kids toast. Had to immediately literally crawl back upstairs and I laid on my bed for about 5 minutes, cold, sweaty, ears ringing, etc. freaked me out it was from blood loss (which didn’t make sense because it’s not been massively heavy) until my husband asked how much water I’d been drinking - barely any since midnight. Chugged a big bottle of water and I haven’t felt faint again since.
I do feel quite fragile physically but no different to how I felt after giving birth, just a sense that my body has been through a lot and needs to rest.

emotionally I’ve been fab which has really really surprised me. I cried through every appointment despite being 100% sure of my decision, but I’ve only felt relief and peace about my decision since the process began last night. I’m sure when the hormones crash I’ll be emotional but I’m happy at the moment.

please do update with your experience, I hope it all goes smoothly. If you can do labour on gas & air then you will be fine with this if it’s anything like my pain was last night xxx

I've inserted 4 tablets after taking some ibuprofen and I'm lying down while they dissolve.

It was really not bad. 45 minutes in I started bleeding, followed by a bit of pain and cramping. Then the toddler woke and wouldn't settle without a breastfeed. This increased some period like pains, on my lower back too, but a warm hand helped. This just lasted half an hour and I went to the loo at 10 where I passed a first clot. This just blobbed out, not painful. I decided then I was bleeding enough not to need the extra tablets.Then I changed from a normal sanitary towel to a nightime maxi pad, I went to bed and slept for two hours. At 12 I coughed on bed and felt a load of blood leak out. So went to the loo and when I fake coughed a larger clot fell out. I couldn't tell you how big as I couldn't see in the toilet but it made a splash. Again, not painful but I was anticipating more, and pain. At 2 I had leaked slightly and had some smaller clots in the loo. After this I look some paracetamol but could easily have done without. I had mild cramping, a headache and wanted more sleep. I also felt cold at times. At 5:30 I woke again and there was a lot less blood and no clots so I think I'm about done.

Summary - inserted tablets at 8:45. Watched tv. Bleeding started at 9:30. Cramping and bleeding increased with breastfeeding but was only uncomfortable/painful for the first half hour. Went to bed at 10, needed the loo about every 2 hours but slept in-between. By 2:30 bleeding was tapering off. I slept fine between toilet trips and was extra thirsty.

Just another update for anyone interested: I’m just back from the clinic after having had an exam and scan today because I’ve had a fever since the termination and my bleeding has been insanely light yesterday and today. Turns out fever is unrelated (and very likely attributed to my daughter starting at nursery two weeks ago, IYKYK!) but light bleeding was due to a big thing of tissue blocking everything. Pregnancy had been passed but there was lots of retained products so I’m off to do another round of misoprostol just now and if this isn’t successful then surgery as an emergency case next week. I asked to go straight to surgery and skip second round of meds but doctor was very adamant that I likely won’t need it after a second round of misoprostol.

we shall see!

Aw, bless you. Was wandering how you were feeling. Have your emotions/ hormones caught up with you. I have started to feel irrationality angry and cried during my daughter's assembly with a very cute song. I am hoping I don't have retained product because I still feel a bit bloated. My periods are normally 3/4 days and I thought I could kid myself this was a period but I don't think so now. It's so much more mucousy for me, after the first 24 hours when it was more fresh blood. 3 weeks feels like a long time before I can do a pregnancy test. On Monday and Tuesday I felt like something heavy at the top of my vagina but that feeling has gone.

@meepmeep28 how are you getting on?

Doing good x physically feeling much back to myself again, bloating is drastically reduced and I have energy again.

I was surprised that I did not have any heavy bleeding with the second misoprostol round but I did pass a lot of BIG clots which I was not prepared for. Way bigger than I passed with the first round, like palm of my hand size clots. I asked about this and was told it was fine but boy did it freak me out at first.

I went to the clinic for another scan today which did not clear things up for certain. they’ve said although they can’t guarantee there aren’t more tiny bits of retained products that they don’t see any on the scan anymore and everything looks fine, but the lining thickness is right at the border between fine and suspicious for retained products. they recommended doing nothing at all so we will see how it goes the next few weeks. Bleeding has completely stopped for me now and they said that was good sign as it’s now 9 days post first tablets. Mine was very mucousy as well, I even asked about that last time and they said it was normal.

im sorry to hear your struggling a bit with your emotions. Hormones are so powerful and it’s only natural that you’ll be feeling more intensely for a while. I’ve been fine throughout the whole thing, but have been feeling a bit more emotional than normal but I can cry at just about anything normally so it’s not much of a change lol I

Glad you are doing alright. I could have passed a hand size clot about 6 hours after misopristol. I had to cough it out. I couldn't see it because the toilet water was red. From yesterday afternoon I've had no bleeding. It's tapering off for me. And my emotions are more steady. I started using my reusable pads a few days ago because disposable pads make me feel achy for a while. It's harder to see how much I've bled as they are black, but it's been very variable like they said.

Hi, just giving an update that 3 weeks later, I've taken the low sensitivity pregnancy test and it's negative. So, for me it was a physically simple procedure. I'm still getting very light (not heavy) brown(dark red) bleeding. It's more like my normal discharged is coloured.

@meepmeep28 hope it's all over for you now too.