The Abortion pill up to 10 weeks

For pregnancies up to 10 weeks' gestation, you will take the first medicine mifepristone in clinic. You will take the second medicine, misoprostol either at home or in the clinic 1 or 2 days later.

You will be given some antibiotics to take, pain medicine with instructions for use and advice on how to care for yourself. You will complete the abortion at home, whether you use the misoprostol in the clinic or at home. You may feel more at ease if you have someone with you for this process

You may have nausea or vomiting after taking mifepristone. If you vomit within 1 hour of taking it, please inform the clinic as soon as possible as you may need to take the pill again. 

Most women do not have pain or bleeding until they take misoprostol. However, if you think you may have miscarried between taking the mifepristone and misoprostol please contact us for advice.

Misoprostol tablets are either placed in the vagina or between the cheek and gum - see instructions for using misoprostol below.

Use sanitary towels to monitor your bleeding during early medical/abortion pill treatment.

Misoprostol (the second medication), causes strong painful cramps and heavy bleeding. Bleeding and cramping usually starts 1 to 2 hours after using misoprostol. 

 Bleeding and pain are often the greatest when the pregnancy is being expelled. Most women pass the pregnancy within 4 hours - timings vary, but it is OK if this happens sooner or later. Almost all women miscarry within a few days. 

You will be given codeine to help you manage the pain, and you can also use pain relief from supermarkets and pharmacies too. Please refer to the 'Pain control' section below, for information about managing your pain.

You may bleed heavily - possibly more than a period, and see large blood clots (as big as a lemon), or other tissue when you pass the pregnancy. The tissue is larger and more recognisable at higher gestations.

Under 8 weeks, you may see the pregnancy sac which is white and fluffy with brown-red tissue surrounding it. A 10 week fetus is about the size of an olive and you may recognise its shape. If you are worried about what you may see when the abortion happens, please discuss this with your healthcare professional.

Once the pregnancy passes the amount of bleeding and cramping should noticeably reduce. It is likely you will feel cramping on and off for a week or so and this should be easily managed with ibuprofen or paracetamol. 

After the pregnancy passes most women will have light bleeding for about two weeks, but you can have spotting up to your next period. You may have a short episode of pain with a gush of blood or a clot several weeks after the abortion - contact us if this continues.

If you have not started to bleed within 24 hours of taking the misoprostol contact the abortion clinic.
Abortion clinic https://www.abortionsclinic.co.za
Abortion pills https://www.abortionsclinic.co.za/abortion-pills.html
Surgical abortion https://www.abortionsclinic.co.za/surgical-abortion.html
Womb cleaning https://www.abortionsclinic.co.za/womb-cleaning.html
Pregnancy termination pills https://www.abortionsclinic.co.za/pregnancy-termination.html