A medical abortion at 8 weeks
By anonymous on 09/09/2014
I discovered I was pregnant after my period was 3 weeks late. I'd thought it impossible due to using condoms whenever my boyfriend and I had sex, and never having noticed anything going wrong. After the initial panic of finding out we calmly discussed that there was no other option for us other than undergoing a termination. The next morning I called my GP who talked through my options and gave me the number for BPAS. I'm 18 years old and my boyfriend is 19; we both live with our families and I'm just about to start university, therefore having an abortion was without a doubt our best option. I was able to get an appointment in the next four days. The waiting was possibly the worst part of the whole procedure as it gave me time to read horror stories and stress over the possible complications of the abortion. The BPAS nurses were very calm and understanding and we decided that a medical abortion would be best for me as I was 8 weeks pregnant and not keen on the idea of going under general anaesthetic. I was given a leaflet to read and was able to book an appointment at another clinic in a couple of days time. Unfortunately my local clinic was unable to do the procedure for another two weeks and by then I would have been unable to go through with the medical abortion due to being too far into the pregnancy; however I have very supporting parents who took me and my boyfriend to the clinic. At the first appointment I was given the first part of the procedure which was a single tablet and an anti-sickness tablet. The nurses were very kind and reassured me that it would be okay. After this tablet I suffered mild stomach cramps but no bleeding. Two days later I returned to the clinic for the second part. I was given 4 small tablets which I was able to insert inside my own vagina, antibiotics, strong painkillers and a pregnancy test to do 3 weeks after. They also provided me with birth control in the form of the combined pill. After about two hours of inserting the pills I began to get stomach cramps which felt like slightly worse versions of my usual period pains. As these got worse I took the painkillers they gave me and had a nap with a hot water bottle.
When I woke up after a couple of hours the bleeding had started and when I went to the toilet I passed the pregnancy, in the form of large blood clots. Although this wasn't a pleasant experience it wasn't unbearable and I couldn't see anything unpleasant. The bleeding continued heavily throughout the day but it really wasn't as bad as I had expected, and the pain was easy to control with regular pain killers and hot water bottles. By the next day the bleeding had reduced to that of a normal period and the pain had got less intense. Overall my experience was a lot easier than I had imagined, due to the stories I'd read online! I was lucky to have the support of my family and boyfriend. I hope that sharing my experience will help people, especially people around my own age, who are contemplating a medical abortion realise that they aren't as awful as is made out.
