I sit here almost one week after having a medical termination. I found out I was pregnant in September the day before my birthday and a month after my little sister had just passed away. I found out I was around 7 weeks, I had previously had the implant and once I had it removed it seemed to mess up my cycles. I also found out in July that I had Polycystic ovarian syndrome, which I was devastated about as I knew it meant I would face difficulties in getting pregnant. I have always wanted children but hadn’t planned to have them for a good few more years. Initially I was shocked and thought the test was wrong, then I handed in a sample to my doctors and it came back positive, it wasn’t until I saw an ultrasound of the pregnancy until I was fully convinced I was pregnant. At the time, I was still with my partner and we did discuss it and both agreed we weren’t ready for children I am only 22 and in my last year of university plus I don’t have any family support around me. About 2 weeks later my partner split up with me giving me the reason that he couldn’t deal with the stress of a relationship. However, he had promised me that I wouldn’t have to go through the termination alone. He then broke that promise and said that it wasn’t his problem and that he didn’t want to deal with it and that I would be fine to go through it on my own. He couldn’t have been more wrong. So, I went for my initial appointment with the nurse to talk through it and what my options were, I realised during that appointment that I hadn’t fully thought about other options, so she told me to go home and consider other options whether I could financially do it or perhaps adoption. I really tortured myself in those weeks after, I referred myself to the midwives I got all my antenatal checks and even went for my 12-week scan. It didn’t make me feel any different, please understand that I have not had time to properly grieve about my sister and a lot of other things have been going on in my life. I then had to rebook an appointment with the nurse, by this point I was 13 weeks pregnant, I cried through the whole appointment as I felt a massive guilt and wish it had of been under different circumstances. I initially wanted the surgical option as I didn’t want the guilt of having to take the tablet that killed my baby. However, dates were a long way away, so I opted for medical termination, I was told that I would take a pill on the Sunday and this pill would alter the hormones to cut off nutrition to the baby, and then 2 days later I would come back into hospital to insert Pessaries into my vagina and that would cause my womb to contract and expel the pregnancy. I was told the pain would be mild like period pains. I took the tablet on the Sunday and had no symptoms from that, I came back on the Tuesday for the second part of the termination. I came in with my aunty, and was directed to a small bay where 6 beds were crammed into what should have been a 2-bed bay, the only privacy you got was the thin curtain around the bed. I could hear everything that was happening with these girls. There was also a shared toilet that had just cubicles. I went into a room with the nurse to sign a consent form and was given some antibiotics and the pessaries to insert into my vagina. I went to the toilet and inserted them. It wasn’t until 3 hours into being there, until I started to get any pain. when they said the pain would mimic period pains they lied, the pain I experienced is by far the worst pain I have ever had to go through. nothing happened so they then started giving me the oral tablets to take 3 hourly. there was a point where I felt like I needed to empty my bowels, so I went to the toilet and just sat. we were told every time that we used the toilet we needed to do it into a bed pan so that they could see if there was anything in it. I sat on the toilet for about 20 minutes and can only describe what was like lava coming out of my back passage. I was so embarrassed as another girl was in the other cubicle. I then went to stand up and wipe myself, and then all i can describe was a gush of watery blood exploded out of my vagina. I screamed and rang for the nurse. No one ever told me that this would happen I was petrified I had no idea what was happening. the nurse then made me go into the other cubicle and came in with me and told me told open my legs wide while she looked at my vagina which was even more embarrassing. I was still hysterical and she then told me to push and cough and whilst this was happening i was being sick into one bowl whilst blood and diarrhoea were coming out the other end. this was all while the nurse watched I was mortified and embarrassed. Nothing happened and was told to go back to bed and try this weird exercise. which I was unable to do as the pain was over bearing. I lay crying in pain and then off goes the emergency buzzer and all the staff shoot into the toilet with the arrest trolley. I can honestly say I thought i was going to die I was extremely terrified at what happened. from what I could hear quite clearly the girl had fainted and needed fluids but was going to be ok. No blood passed however I was in regular pain and was crippled by it I couldn’t eat or drink. I was given pain medication but it didn’t help. I lay down and the pain resided slightly I felt so drained from the pin and the mental drainage also. I then sat up feeling like I needed to go to the toilet and an explosion of blood came out of my vagina I cried and begged the health care assistant to help me to the toilet. literally just as I sat down the foetus came out however was attached to the placenta that was still inside me, I was never told about this. I cried and was saying i was a murderer and that I was a bad person. they had to cut off the umbilical cord and told me to go to next cubicle to pass the placenta I was still hysterical and the only person that seemed to be helping me was the student nurse she was amazing. I then passed the placenta and cleaned myself up. I can’t describe in words how I felt after the pregnancy passed. I cried on my bed wishing i was dead and calling myself a murderer. Not once did the nurses check on me to see if I was ok. I felt so empty and alone even though my aunty was there trying to say I had done the right thing, she may as well have been on another planet as i was in my own world and now baby less. the nurses didn’t explain to me what would happen next and i just carried on using the bed pans as they hadn’t said anything different. I was getting larger clots and a lot of blood and was quite scared by this. I asked the HCA and she was very cold with me and said it was normal and that I didn’t need to do it in a bed pan anymore. My aunty wondered off the ward and she overheard the health care assistant saying she wasn’t going to answer my calls and that shed wish id hurry up so she could redo the beds. I was shocked by this and felt upset and disgusted now I am a student nurse myself and for a member of staff to say this in such a delicate situation made me feel like I was being a nuisance. they didn’t say how long I had to stay so I hadn’t made arrangements to be picked up as i needed spare clothes because by spares were covered in blood and i didn’t want to wear jeans because of how much I was bleeding. I was then told i could go and wasn’t really told what to look out for in terms of infection it was all rushed and non-empathetic. I got home and decided I didn’t want to be alone so stayed at my aunties. the next morning, I felt numb and was in so much pain I felt really low and drained. I have had such a traumatic experience. I feel if they had told me the truth about medical termination I would have opted for surgical as it is not dignifying, it’s extremely painful and you bleed tons. I never want anyone to have to experience what I went through last week. I’m trying to block it out right now but feel by writing this I will help someone make the right decision in terms of surgical or medical. I’m sorry for being so graphic just wanted to be honest.
I wanted to make this post for myself I think and also to help anyone searching for experiences. If you’re like me you’ve ready every experience google pulled up. I’ll jump right in I am 25 and I have a three year old from a sh*t show marriage. I was fortunate to be able to get out of it and raise my kid on my own. That being said I don’t have a lot of time being a working mom and full time student. Relationships just don’t come running through my door these days. I did meet an older man who was great at just giving me What I need when i needed It. It worked out great and then I found out I was pregnant. I know this is long but i wanted to give my full account for anyone struggling. He immediately was not involved and that was fine it made the decision even easier. 26, two deadbeat baby daddies ? Not the path I wanted to take. On top of that It would not be fair to my child to suddenly change her lifestyle to accommodate a new baby likewise it would not of been fair to the new baby to give them less just to not upset my first child. And if that’s immature to anyone reading well then there’s another reason why I didn’t need another.
Unlike some I knew i was pregnant way early. I literally knew a week after conception. It was the first time we’d had sex without protection and i just knew. I took several test that were all negative initially and slowly turned positive. They say you shouldn’t read the test after a certain time but those also can only turn positive if the human growth hormone is detected. False negatives are a thing BUT false positives are not that common. So bam i knew. i told him and he had nothing to say. I called a local abortion clinic and made an appointment. They were so kind and non judgmental. I went to my first visit. They took my blood pressure and did the finger prick to determine my iron and my blood type. Then came the ultrasound. They couldn’t see anything but my blood test and urine confirmed my pregnancy. The nurse told me i was not far along enough and the law is that they must visualize the pregnancy before termination. Frustrating but necessary they have to visualize the fetus in your uterus to make sure you don’t have an ectopic pregnancy. So for two more weeks I had to be pregnant and this pregnancy was different than my first I was awfully sick. Having to hide it was so stressful. Mentally knowing that i was letting this life grow just to end It really took a toll on me. I Could not of gotten through this without my best friend keeping me sane. Finally my two weeks were up and I could return to the clinic. Same routine and they saw the fetus ! up until that moment i had been 100% on the termination boat when i looked at It i was filled with emotion and cried. Still aware that this was the best decision I continued with the process. The nurse gave me one pill and told me to take the next 4 the best day. I had no side effects from the first pill just a light stomach ache that night which may of just been nerves. The next morning i woke up with no morning sickness and no morning sweats it was surreal I knew the life that was inside of me no longer lived. I had to go to work i couldn’t take any time off. I proceeded with my day and after lunch i took one ibprohen . 30 mins later i started with the 4 pills in my cheeks but it was messy and hard to resist not swallowing them i ended up putting them under my tongue to dissolve i was driving and they did not take the full Thirty mins to dissolve ! It was about ten mins. And they kicked in immediately! I began having cramps and had the urge to go to the bathroom. For me the abortion was no stronger than a 6 on a scale of 1-10 I do have high pain tolerance though . I was at work for the first 6 hrs and i was fine but if i could of laid down i probably would of. A bathroom needs to be accessible you will pass a lot of clots and tissue. You feel the clots coming out that was the only thing that really bothered me they come out in gushes. Later in the day i continued bleeding i had dinner and went to sleep with no issues. I had a heating of but i didn’t have to use It. Today is day two and I’m bleeding like a normal period no cramps. I did have a headache but i was fine after drinking some water. So for me the experience was nothing more than a heavy period. I will always think about what could of been but for the most part I feel relief. I can close this chapter and start a new. Good luck and I hope this helped someone. I was terrified from all the accounts that I read. Try to remember all of our bodies are different.
I have not done medical abortion yet but my best friend did. She had an abortion with MTP kit, which is used to abort pregnancy at home. She used that kit because she cant tell her parents that she got pregnant with her boyfriend. So That time non surgical medical abortion saved her.
My husband and I discovered we were pregnant with an unwanted 3rd pregnancy almost immediately as my cycle is usually so short and so regular that being late has only ever meant one thing. We were completely shocked that this had happened. We had experienced fertility difficulties and it took us a long time to get pregnant with both our children and we assumed that we couldn't get pregnant without really trying. I thought I'd timed our unprotected intercourse so that i couldn't conceive. And it was only one time. We couldn't believe we'd been so unlucky.
We are in a position where we could have a 3rd baby but it would have drastic implications for our financial security, have a great impact on our other two children and on our day-to-day lives. Also, we both feel we are too old to have another baby - my husband would be retirement age by the time the child finished school.
We spent a long time deciding what to do and nearly decided to proceed with the pregnancy because the idea of a termination was so horrifying to us. We felt so guilty because we knew this was a selfish decision, based purely on protecting quality of life for us and our existing kids. Googling helped in some ways as I realised that it was more common than i thought. And it showed there were options i didn't know about. We eventually decided to terminate and within 20 minutes I felt like a massive weight had been lifted. Although it was not in any way something i wanted to ever have to do, it felt like the right decision and this carried me through it all.
I had already made the consultation appointment as an immediate knee-jerk reaction but still had nearly 10 days to wait. 10 days in which i showed all the signs of pregnancy - the nausea, the crushing tiredness, the nausea, the need to eat carbs and being an emotional wreck. Keeping it under wraps was so difficult as i felt so ill, and alongside this was the horrid feeling that this wasn't serving a happy end, it was going to end in a termination, no baby and us being ultimately really selfiish.
The first appointment was fine. The nursing staff were lovely, didn't ask how i got into the situation. It was obvious that i was in a settled relationship with a family already and that i couldn't cope with another. The doctor scanned me (externally) and asked if I wanted to know anything - was it twins, how far along i was etc. I said no and started to cry. He was really kind and patted my shoulder, which i found very reassuring. No judgements but an appreciation that this was a serious decision and a sad one to make.
I was around 8 weeks pregnant so could have the medical abortion and they offered me the first pill that day. I was so happy as I'd been worried that it would take a long time until the next appointment and I was feeling more and more pregnant. The second appointment was booked for 2 days after.
The first pill made me feel really nauseous for the whole time until my second appointment. As i knew i wasn't going ahead with the pregnancy, i took anti-nausea drugs which helped a little. I also had really bad cramps about 8 hours after taking it and they lasted all night. I was supposed to work the next day but didn't feel able as i was so nauseated and tired and the cramps were painful.
My second appointment was at 8am and they immediately inserted the vaginal and anal suppositories. I was advised to walk around as much as possible and they left me to it. I was in a private room with my own bathroom and was very grateful as we weren't allowed to flush anything away - all pee, poo and wipes/pads were to be kept for inspection. I had some cramping and some bleeding but nothing too severe until 12ish.The nurse then offered to speculum me to see what was happening. She managed to remove the pregnancy for me during this. I then bled quite heavily but not scarily so and they said i could leave within the hour. I felt like I got away quite lightly - some of the other experiences on here quite frankly terrified me but perhaps it doesn't always have to be that way.
I was fine for the rest of the day, quite heavy bleeding and some clots but not much pain. I woke feeling fine the next day and tried to have a normal morning, getting the kids ready etc but discovered i was worn out pretty quickly. I'd advise you to have someone to help out if you have a lot to do the next day. The cramps became quite severe that afternoon and have been on and off ever since. The bleeding has been on/off but never so bad that i've leaked. All in all, it hasn't been too physically uncomfortable.
I was worried how I would explain my absence from work and the Women's Health unit offered me a letter that said I was required to have a procedure under anaesthetic with 24 hours recovery afterwards so this explained 2 days of my absence. I'm relying on the fact that you can self-cert for up to a week and will avoid answering questions directly with a vague 'gynaecological' explanation.
It's now been a few days since the termination and I haven't regretted my decision at all. I definitely made the right decision for my husband and I, and for our existing children. I feel terrible that we had to do it in the first place but the fact that I'm so sure that we've done the right thing for us is helping me get through the awful fact of having to have a termination in the first place.
I hope any of this has been of use to someone going through this. It's really tough, probably one of the toughest periods of my life and not an experience I would ever want to repeat.
I work as a medical expert and serve the field of women's health each day. Nowadays there are a lot of women who end their early pregnancy through a medical abortion process for various practical reasons.The chance of any risk and side effects are much less when compared to the surgical process.I'm glad you took a bold step by sharing your story. This is sure to give other women the courage to get through their abortion-phase.
I am 37 years old and just took the abortion pill yesterday. This was my first pregnancy. After much thought my fiancé and I decided it was a right decision for out life right now. I was on birth control and have been for over 10 years. So when I found out I was pregnant it was a huge shock and unplanned. I believe I became pregnant because I had started to take Metformin for PCOS. It made me very sick with diarrhea and throwing up. So my doctor believed that I had not been processing the BC. So I was 6 weeks and 5 days pregnant when I made an appt at my local Planned ParentHood. I have insurance but it did not cover this. I live in Florida and had to pay $525 for the pill. Which I was very surprised by and would be curious to know what the costs are in other states.
Even though the price was crazy ridiculous I am very grateful that I had the choice. My appt was Saturday at 11am. Because my local Planned Parenthood only does them 1 day a week. When I got to the appt the lady at the front desk told me that everyone was there for the same thing and that I didn't need to write my reason for my appt when signing in. It made me feel a little better to know that all those other women were there dealing with the same nightmare. Lets be honest this isn't something anyone ever wants to have to go thru or make a decision to do. But after thinking about it for 2 weeks I knew that it was the right one for me. After waiting about 10 mins I was called in- by the way after filling out paper work they ask you for payment up front. Which surprised me because what if for some reason you are no longer pregnant when you have the sonogram? Regardless I went in had to pee in a cup. Wait another 10 mins in another waiting room and then was brought in to have the ultrasound. The tech was very nice and asked if I wanted to see it. I told her no as I had already seen it at my doctors appt when I went to confirm my pregnancy. She confirmed I was 7 weeks and 2 days. She then had me go back to the waiting room where I say for 45 mins with several other people. There was a girl in there laughing the entire time over nothing with her BF I thought that was really rude and inappropriate. I was beyond annoyed by her. After the 45 minute wait I was brought into another room where a nurse basically read from a pice a paper and information on a computer screen. Explained there process and gave me instructions. She was not as nice and was just kid of cold. But I guess she was doing her job. She then took my temp and checked my blood. They have to make sure your hemoglobilin levels aren't too low. Since I am anemic this made me super nervous. I told her where my levels need to be. She said 10 or high other wise you cannot do it today! I wanted to cry! Thankfully my levels were at 10.5! Probably because I had not had my super heavy period in a month an half! Thank God! So be aware that if you are anemic take some iron pills to make sure your levels are high enough and you don't have to come back. After that I had to sign some paper work and then sent out to wait for the doctor to call me in to take the first pill.. That was another 10 mins of waiting. I was then greeted by a very friendly female doctor who brought me to this back area. I did not realize that it was the room where all the girls that just had a surgical procedure were laying in big chairs. I guess waiting to be discharged. This was not easy as I saw two girls crying! That area really made me sad and I just kept walking to the doctors office! I wish they would have her office in a different location. Regardless she had me sit made sure I was okay and asked if I had any questions. Reviewed the directions again and then gave me the pill with a small cup of water to drink it. She said stick around after taking it for at least 15-20 mins to make sure you can keep this pill down because if you throw it up, you will need to come back and take another one. I took the pill no problem. Was given all the written instructions, a bottle of medication which included the 4 pills I needed to take 24hrs later as well as the antibiotics that I needed to take that evening.
I thankfully made it home without throwing up and was so happy to be out of the doctors office. I think all the waiting around really made me anxious.
I tried to keep myself occupied the rest of the day so I went out to make sure I was prepared. I picked up lots of water, gatorade, and some gingerly. As well as a heating bad and some ibuprofen which I needed to take the next day and and lots of pads!
TRUST ME GET A HEATING PAD IT WAS A LIFE SAVER!
The next day, which was a Sunday I wanted to get out of the house since I knew after I took the 4 pills I would not be going anywhere. So I went out had breakfast, I honestly didn't have much of an appetite maybe nervous or maybe just symptoms of being pregnancy my stomach has been a mess the entire 7 weeks of being pregnant. Came back home set my room up, clean my bathroom since I knew I would be spending a lot of time in there and just made sure I had everything I needed.
The instructions told me to place the 4 pills in between my gums and cheeks so 2 on each side. This was a little awkward and I felt like they were not going to dissolve. Make sure you place them not to in the front and more on the side of our mouth. Thankfully they did not taste like anything and dissolved pretty well they were like a paste when I finally drank some water to swallow the rest after waiting the 30 mins. 8 mins after swallowing them I started to feel a cramp like a gas cramp sharp but not painful. I went to the bathroom and I was already bleeding. I sat on the toilet for about 10 mins but then decided to get up. I went and plugged in the heating bad cause I could feel that I was gonna be having some bad cramps which I figured I would sine I have fibroids and my usual periods are very painful. Before I could lay back down on the bed I felt like I needed to poop. So I went back to the toilet and I had diarrhea. This turned into sitting on the toilet for the next 1hour with very bad cramp pain and feeling like I was going to throw up, to the point where I thought I was going to throw up so I had a plastic bag in front of me in case I did. Thankfully I never did throw up because I hate that so much. I had chills to the point of shaking a little bit and just terrible cramps. It was awful I am not going to lie to you. I just kept breathing and honestly praying to god for the pain to pass. After an hour I felt a large clot pass and I decided to clean myself up and try to lay down to see if that helped the pain. I laid down and put the heating pad on medium right on my lower stomach. This helped a lot and I relaxed a little bit. About 20 mins later I started to feel the paid coming back again. So I went back to the bathroom for another 15 mins of paid and chills. I then cleaned myself up again and decided I need to take some more ibuprofen Which I had take 4 at 1pm as instructed. Since by now I was almost 5pm I decided to take 2 more. However I forced myself to eat half of a plain waffle that I had left over from breakfast. The dr had given me Tylenol with Codine. However I don't like medication and they always upset my stomach so I decided to just stick out the pain with my ibuprofen. I am not sure if it would have helped if I would have taken the Tylenol but for me I would rather have pain then deal with an upset stomach for hours on end. I am not sure if the paid just got better or I got used to it but after dealing with this back and forth of laying on the bed with the heating pad and having to go sit on the toilet with sharp cramps and chills. I dealt with this for about 3-4 hours more because around 8:30pm I started to feel thirsty and hungry. I asked my fiancé to go buy me some sushi. I know weird but that is what I wanted. I drank water which made me feel like I was going to throw up so I chewed on ice chips cause I knew I needed to stay hydrated. At around 9:30pm I ate half of a roll of sushi and then took 2 more ibuprofen. By this time i probably had passed about 4-6 rather large lemons size clots. I am assuming one of those was probably my pregnancy. I could not tell because there was so much blood in the toilet which is probably a good thing. At around 1am I woke up and eat the rest of my sushi roll that I had put in the fridge thankfully and went back to sleep. I had checked my fever thru out the evening and it stayed steady at 99.4 which was within normal range. I was told only to call the emergency line if it got high than 100.4. I finally feel asleep around 2am and then woke up at 6:30am this morning. Surprisingly my pad was not even half way full and the cramps and chills were gone. I cleaned myself up drank some water and went back to bed until 8:30am. This morning after taking a shower I was hungry and had a good breakfast. The cramps are almost gone and my bleeding is like a normal period for most but actually pretty light compared to my regular periods. I went to work and felt a little sluggish and tired. I am lucky to work for myself so I only went into the office for a couple of hours at around 3pm I left work, grabbed lunch and came home. I eat a rather big lunch for the first time in what feels like weeks. I don't feel a 100% like my true self but I feel fine. I am so thankful that the worst of the pain and discomfort only lasted 4-6 hrs. I am pretty sure that everything is fine I have to wait until next Monday for my follow up sonogram to confirm everything is good. I am going to be calling the office to see if I can come in any sooner. Hopefully they will let me. I hope this very lengthy account of my story helps someone. Please feel free to ask any questions. I had a ton and felt like I couldn't find some of them online and during the search is when you run into those awful stories that just make this experience worse than it needs to be. One more thing that I wanted to add is that I thanked the doctor for what she does as I feel it is something very important. She was so surprised I am not sure anyone has ever thanked her!? Lot's of Love and Light to all the other women out there anxious and scared like I was just 24hrs ago. Big Hugs!