We have an article here that i think you'll find helpful.

Good luck *hugs*

don't be afraid to ask at the clinic you go to (i must have phoned up my clinic about sixty times afterwards with worries and questions and they were always lovely and reassuring and didn't get annoyed with me hassling them every five minutes).

also it was very early on - just a few weeks and with the surgical they suggest you wait until after five weeks because up to that time the collection of cells is no bigger than a grain of rice and it is possible to miss it in the D&C apparently so the pill is better...
at least that is what i was told (personally i don't know anything so i just accepted what they said).
the main thing for me was they would do it the next day.

re. the procedure it was fine... you take a pill orally the first day; the next day you get a vaginal suppository and a couple of hours after that you start to get cramps and miscarry.
afterwards you bleed a LOT - really a lot and pass big clots too. and you continue bleeding for a week at least until it finally stops. the only thing i don't know is how it has affected me physically long-term (my periods are MUCH lighter now and i don't know why... maybe i'll go back to the doctor and ask).

then you go back later for a check-up and a sonogram to make sure everything is fine and that's it.

re. the pads - i found 'always' to be much thinner and more comfy than any other type. i would definitely recommend those!

about your boyfriend - i can't answer because we were splitting up (very acrimonously) and i had to deal with someone shouting badly down the phone at me but somehow everything i was going thru helped me put it more in perspective and instead of being upset and shouting back --- i just let him shout until he was finished i didn't care.

i'm glad you're feeling fine about it - i still do and when i look at babies in the street all i can think still now is relief!!!!!

For the record, drinking while healing from ANY sort of surgical procedure is not a smart thing to do, and some of the excessive bleeding may be because of the effects alchohol has in the body if you have been doing this routinely.

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Will I bleed for a long time?

You may bleed off and on for a couple of weeks. Some women have cramps and pass a few large blood clots for up to 10 days. Use sanitary pads — not tampons.

When will I get my period?

Abortion begins a new menstrual cycle. You should have a regular period in four to eight weeks.

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*~*Scarleteen Advocate*~*

Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable

“One ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Heather Corinna

But very heavy bleeding is something that really shouldn't last more than a few days, and you want to get on that if it does, because it could be a signal of a complcation or even a miscarriage due to an incomplete procedure.

Substantial breast changes really don't occur THAT early. Bear in mind that's it's normal for plenty of women to have breasts that change by a cup size just during their normal menstrual cycles.

Some tenderness can occur, but that's usually about it in very early pregnancy. Since milk production doesn't even begin until the second trimester big changes can't happen that soon. However, in adolescence very subtle changes may appear more marked, and to boot, typical adolsecent breast changes may simply be happening concurrently with a pregnancy or be boosted by the hormonal changes (unfortunately, most data on pregnancy is compiled together, without showing possible differences between adults and adolescents). But no, massive breat size changes are unlikely in the first few weeks of pregnancy from pregnancy alone because glandular growth that causes substantial breast changes in pregnancy does not and cannot begin that early. Feel free to check in with your OB/GYN about it, or standard OB/GYN texts if you like.

(Please remember folks, that we don't pull this stuff out of thin air, or glean the information we post here as staff from one personal incident, one single book or one clinic or doctor, but on a wide variety of sources, and in my case, many years of work doing sex ed. I assure you, our primary interest is in being as sure as possible that the information we give y'all is as accurate as can be: that's the only reason we have this place here, after all. None of our staff here should give a fig about being in the right or being a big expert: it's about making sure the information is current, accurate and as comprehensive as possible.)

for nikki i reckon if you have any queries or are worried you are perfectly justified in asking them (i phoned my clinic all the time i was so stressed and they were lovely - they didn't mind at all) so asking for them to give you an extra sonogram or an early one to put your mind at rest seems fine to me.

although i am sorry i don't know the answer to your question about when the pregnancy test would be accurate again. i know everyone hates to be a 'bother' but i genuinely don't think the doctors/clinics mind --- i couldn't have been more of a pain in the neck but even so when i came to pay my bill and the doctor realized i wasn't using health insurance he grabbed the bill out of the receptionists hand and put a line through the $800+ amount and wrote $200 --- so it is not as if he was cross or pissed at me for being anxious and speaking with him all the time.

if you are father than you know its better to just not have the baby if your not going to care for it as if you were to have a baby that you wanted.

Have you seen the New to Scarleteen? thread? It might be a good place to get started.

We are not doctors, but I think its time that you go see one. You have been complaining about bleeding for awhile now. I think thats its smart to make an appointment now.

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*~*Scarleteen Advocate*~*

Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable

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*~*Scarleteen Advocate*~*

Call your clinic.

Aftercare and question answers are PART of the service you paid for. Smome clotting is normal post-abortion, but WE do not have your medical records, the details of your procedure, dates, et cetera to know what is and isn't okay in YOUR case. THEY do.

So, call them. Please.

When people come here panicking again and again and we continually tell them, in situations where that is the best, most responsible advice, to call their healthcare provider and they patently refuse, there really is both nothing else we can do, and it becomes rather difficult to take the concerns seriously, since someone unwilling to simply pick up the phone doesn't appear to be taking them seriously.

although the clinic must know what they are doing --- and i don't want to worry you. how do you feel in general? if you are not feeling ill or light-headed or anything maybe it doesn't matter about the scan.

but just for your own personal reassurance, and as you are still bleeding, i think it is pretty shitty that they didn't scan you when it said on the leaflet that they would. that's all part of the doctoring as far as i am concerned you ought to walk out of there feeling that everything that needed to be done and checked was and reaassured that everything is fine!!!!

it depends on how neurotic you are - i would be on the phone right now saying i want a scan because i wouldn't be able to cope with not having had one. i would be having panic attacks and not sleeping etc. but if you feel ok with it - then that's ok.

When you go to the doctors why don't you ask them what you are asking us?

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*~*Scarleteen Advocate*~*

I took the clinical abortion route last May. The procedure included orally taking one pill that actually ends the pregnancy by stopping the production of progesterone in the body. I recieved 4 other pills to insert vaginally two days later that caused my body to expel the fetus, a clinically enduced miscarriage. I also received two other prescriptions, one for pain and the other for nausea. Please note: they were nowhere near strong enough for what I endured.

I was with my boyfriend at the time, and the pain I felt after the inserts was the worst I've ever felt...and I've had an appendicitis. They warned me that cramping was expected, but I did not hear about the kind I experienced. About 3 hours after inserting the 4 additional pills, I experienced dry heaves and cramping that I thought I would avoid by going the clinical route. My blood pressure dropped dangerously low and I had my boyfriend call for an ambulance because I could not make the ride to the hospital without pain meds. The ambulance came and even though the attending hospital physician gave the "ok" for morphine to be administered before I arrived, the EMTs had to wait until my blood pressure was high enough before giving it to me intravenously. I received 2 doses of morphine that afternoon in addition to other powerful pain meds, Vicodin and Darvocet. After I arrived, I received an internal ultrasound, where an instrument is inserted in the vagina to survey my uterus and other reproductive organs.

Typically, my advice for women seeking abortion is still surgical, rather than medical abortion, for some of the reasons you listed: how scary some of that can be without a doctor or nurse present who knows what's going on (and being scared will always increase pain in any situation), because the level of bleeding and cramping can be unpredictable, etc. Surgical abotion remains a far more predictable, less chaotic procedure.

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Originally posted by BabyGirl205:
how far along are you? if you are not father than 3 or 4 months than really your not killing the baby because it really isnt a baby yet so yeah.

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O My gosh! You could not be more wrong! From the minute you concieve the sperm in which meets the egg, (we all know the story, so i won't continue) there is a human life in you. So you are soo wrong when you say that you aren't really killing the baby if you are finishing your first trimester.

Personally, I'm really against the whole abortion deal. I mean if it's a serious thing your pregnant, like it's a matter of living at home, or living on your own, or another serious issue like that, I guess that abortion is all right. But really it isn't. You made an adult decision to have sex, so now it's (the baby) you responsiblitly to take care of it.

Sorry if this affened any of you, but I think really strongly about this. (I've always been astrong debator.!!)

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From the minute you concieve the sperm in which meets the egg, (we all know the story, so i won't continue) there is a human life in you. So you are soo wrong when you say that you aren't really killing the baby if you are finishing your first trimester.

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This thread is not the place to be having an abortion debate, but here is a brief public service announcement to correct some basic facts:

A fertilized egg is human tissue, and a potential human being, certainly.

But even at the very end of the first trimester, the fetus is barely a few inches long and has no capacity to feel pain - or indeed feel anything, as it doesn't have anything like a functioning cortex.

i definitively wanted an abortion - from the moment i found out i was pregnant to the moment of the termination all i had in my head was the thoughts 'i don't want this'... 'i don't accept that i am pregnant'... 'it is a horrible mistake' 'stop it/finish it' 'make it not happen' etc. etc.

having said all that i was hit by huge guilt afterwards (not before) and just like dotta i wanted to go to a church because i could no longer pray. i always used to start my prayers with the lord's prayer - from a child almost as if that were the address on the letter... and after the abortion i couldn't get beyond the first line i'd stutter and stop.

i don't regret my decision but i don't want to minimise the fact that i felt GUILT and at my worst times i also felt like i had stained my soul that i could never make up for what i had done - no matter what penance i tried that was it, i was damned for good --- straight to hell for me.

this is how it was for me - it's not something i ever showed on the outside to anyone or even something that i felt at all times... i was enormously relieved not to be pregnant but the two emotions are capable of co-existing.

i don't in any way regret my decision and part of my problem with 'god' as it were - was that i couldn't genuinely regret it. given the same situation i would make the same decision again absolutely so how could i repent of it truly? i couldn't.

it is an issue i guess that is skirted around a little bit but it is there (for some people or for me at least) and worth pointing out i think.

all the best

Background: In the United States and worldwide, elective termination of pregnancy remains common. Accurate statistics have been kept since the enactment of the 1973 US Supreme Court decisions legalizing abortions. Since then, approximately 1.3-1.4 million abortions have been performed annually in the United States. Worldwide, some 20-30 million legal abortions are performed annually, with another 10-20 million abortions performed illegally (see The Alan Guttmacher Institute). Illegal abortions are unsafe and account for 13% of all maternal mortality and serious complications. Death from abortion is almost unknown in the United States or in other countries where abortion is legally available.

In spite of the introduction of newer, more effective, and more widely available contraceptive methods, more than half of the 6 million pregnancies occurring each year in the United States are considered unplanned by the women who are pregnant. Of these pregnancies, approximately half end in elective terminations. Abortion is still one of the most common medical procedures performed in the United States each year, and more than 40% of all women will have a pregnancy terminated by abortion at some time in their reproductive lives.

and on the psychological level, which i was kinda referring too earlier, the site pretty much described the same emotions that i went through of relief and guilt together - but although i talked a lot about the termination because it was a relief to talk about it and kinda share it... i think i remember only talking to one person about the fact that i felt i had become a murderer, i had taken a life, was a bad person (a little and not really but yeah it was there) this is not meant to be inflammatory or anti-choice either btw - i don't believe it or didn't even then but it was a thought that did go through my head - might as well be honest about it.

i always have been a bit bad person anyway and am always trying to be better - i wanted to be a nun when i was younger even!!! ... but 'the road to hell is paved... all that definitely applies to me! Anyway here is what the site had to say and i thought it was kinda positive:

Psychologic consequences of abortion

Generally, the psychological health of the abortion patient parallels her psychologic health prior to seeking an abortion. If the woman needed to have the abortion in secrecy, then long-term psychologic sequelae, such as intrusive thoughts, are more common.

Many studies have actually demonstrated improved psychological well-being after abortion. For the studies that have shown this, the improvement in psychological health is suggested to be more reflective of the patient dealing with the social issues that led her to select abortion.

Sometimes, confusion over normal emotions, such as sadness and grief versus psychological illnesses (eg, depression), seems to occur. The most common feeling experienced after an abortion is that of relief and confidence in the decision. Few women may experience feelings of grief and guilt postabortion, and these feelings usually pass within days to weeks in most cases and do not lead to psychological sequelae. One study demonstrated that the risk for serious psychiatric illness postabortion was 1%, whereas with live birth it was 10%. Few studies on these data exist, partly because studies performed earlier gave no indication for psychiatric sequelae so no new findings have been researched. Considering that more than 1.5 million abortions are performed in the United States each year, if an epidemic of psychiatric sequelae due to the procedure occurred, it would be observed by now

And yes, depression, feelings of profound confusion, identity issues, feelings of guilt, the whole banana are incredibly common after many wome give birth and begin to parent, so these feelings are not an issue with just one choice, but often, with any of them.

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Originally posted by christinejones:
For the studies that have shown this, the improvement in psychological health is suggested to be more reflective of the patient dealing with the social issues that led her to select abortion.

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