Medical Abortion Forum - 13 Week Abortion

salispuedes wrote:

hi, I am 33yrs old and my 28yr old girlfriend is having an abortion. We took this long because she didnt know she was pregnant until she went to the doctor for an unrelated thing. We feel we would like to be parents, but at this particular point in time, it is simply impossible for us to have one because we are on the verge of opening a business in wich we have invested everything. She plays an important part of the business, and her pregnancy overlaps precisely with the months she needs to be at work 100%. If shes not there, there is no business and gone are our savings and efforts for the past year. I support her 100% and I told her exactly what are choices where, and we decided to end the pregnancy, it is what was best for both. I personally not fully comfortable with the desition, since I am 33 and feel I am around the age where I would like to become a father. On the other hand, a child would break our finances, and it would probably have the effect of putting serious strain on our relationship, and I am 100% sure I do not want a child growing up with separate parents.

Well anyways, our doctor has suggested her using misoprostol, she started to take 400mg vaginally yesterday at night, and 200mg in the morning, I am nervous, I am completely worried about her and what she is experiencing. I wish I could trade places with her to prevent her from dealing with this. The doctor told us this could take up to 2 days and I am finding the wait unbearable. On other sited I have read that some women take up to 800mg vaginally to induce a miscarriage, and I was wondering why our doctor decided to use such low dosages, my girlfriend has no physical problems whatsoever.

i have never, never heard of a medical abortion at 13 weeks. It's far too dangerous and, in fact, most competent abortion providers refuse to do nothing but a surgical abortion after the eighth or ninth week at best. The risks of heavy bleeding, serious pain, and other complications increase after the ninth week.

Since your girlfriend has already taken the regimen, all you can do is wait to see if it will work or not. Before the ninth week of pregnancy, when most medical abortions are performed, misoprostol has an 80% success rate so there is the chance that the abortion will not be completed. Keep the follow up appointment with the doctor and if you need to, start contacting other abortion providers to possibly change doctors. Other abortion providers should be better able to tell you whether your current doctor's decision was appropriate or not.

I am honestly at a loss here because I truly believe this doctor should be reported. The only advice I can offer is to observe your girlfriend through this time and make sure that she is not hemorrhaging and that the pain is not unbearable. If she is filling up a pad in less than two hours, take her to the emergency room. And, she should be using pads and not tampons.

It's also important for your girlfriend to monitor what is coming out even if that means looking into the toilet after she's done. At 13 weeks, she should be able to identify the sac, placenta, and probably some fetal tissue. Tell her to try to keep track to make sure that everything comes out.

Also, tell her she must keep her follow up appointment to ensure that everything was expelled properly. If some tissue remained, it could make her very, very sick.

Finally, did her doctor give her any antibiotics? If so, tell her to take all of them. If the doctor did not, report them immediately and seek out another doctor, preferrably a competent abortion provider.

If she doesn't start bleeding within the next 2-4 days, find a different provider and select a surgical abortion because it will mean that the misoprostol did not work. If she does start bleeding, just keep track of the amount (to make sure she's not hemorrhaging), keep some pain relievers nearby (your doctor should have given you some of those as well), and just try to relax and ride out the time. Keep the follow up appointment, I can't stress how important that is for her health.

Keep us posted on what happens.
Best of luck and peace,
jenn