I too had a medical abortion last weekend. I was 8 weeks pregnant.

By anonymous on 02/03/2007
I too had a medical abortion last weekend. I was 8 weeks pregnant. I had it on the NHS and only had to wait a week from my doctor’s referral to the first appointment for the tablet to swallow. This was the easy part. I was in and out quickly and had to stay local for an hour in case I was sick. I wasn't and I went home. Two days later I was booked in at 8am and got my treatment promptly (the four pessaries). An hour later, the pain started. They say it’s like period pain. IT ISN'T!! It's extremely painful, like contractions, I would imagine, as basically that’s what's happening.

It was better when I was walking around but still needed some very strong pain killers. I also was sick so needed an anti sickness injection and then some more pain killers. I retired to my bed and managed to sleep for an hour. I was still in hospital and was to be there until the 'products of conception' (their term not mine) had passed. This happened about 4 hours later after I had to take two of the same tablets inserted as pessaries orally as nothing much was happening, though I was not having too much pain then.

Don't look at it what ever you do. It's not pleasant. You will be able to tell that it’s passed and then a nurse will need to see the 'bed pan' to check. Then you can go home. And I felt well enough to do so. Bleeding still but not too heavy, a bit clotty (sorry to be graphic) but copeable. All in all the nurses were fine and from a friend’s experience at the Marie Stopes clinic, I would rather spend a day in hospital than be sent home with that kind of pain. Don't pay them £500 to be sent home in agony when it's free to all women and you are far better looked after on the NHS. Also the NHS will do a medical termination up to 12 weeks not 7 as the private clinics say.

By the way, I am 31.My friend in the same predicament is 30 so we should have known better than to get ourselves in this situation at our age but mistakes happen! Also we both don't have children and we don't feel ready yet. I do feel guilty for the mistake I made, especially still not wanting children at my age. Half of me feels I should have gone on with the pregnancy, but the other half of me feels that I will want children one day and would rather have a baby when it is wanted and I feel ready to be a mum. It's a woman’s right to choose.

Editor’s note: Thanks for writing in and sharing your experience of a medical termination. About a quarter of terminations are done this way now and it’s helpful to know what to expect – your story will help others to understand what’s involved.

Although the actual experience of the termination itself is uppermost in your mind at the moment because it was so recent, you go on to say that there were parts of you that thought differently about the pregnancy at first. You may go on and relate well to your termination but just in case you find yourself in difficulty at any stage, we are here to support you. Just get in touch. Thanks for sharing your story – I know it will be helpful to others.

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