I expected my medical abortion at 5 weeks to be excruciatingly painful - but it wasn't

Contraception failure

I had my last period on Feb 10th after which my partner and I had a contraception failure on the 27th of Feb. He told me to take an i-pill which can be taken up to 72 hours post insemination but I just took it lightly convincing him that people try for months and years to have a baby... there's no way that it could happen to us with just one session.

[If you're looking to read stories about medical abortion or experiences of abortion at 5 weeks you'll find links to those here]

I was due for my next period on the 9th of March having a perfect 28-day cycle. We waited. Nothing. The same day my partner went out and bought a couple of home pregnancy kits. We decided to check the next day itself with an early morning sample of urine.

Three pregnancy tests

On 10th March we checked - “Thrice” ...n all times it showed 2 red lines. I was pregnant.

We were to get married about 8 months from now but I still had to complete my studies and plus the society would never accept an illegitimate child even if we did get married now. So we just took a logical step of taking a gynaecologist appointment at a “Good” hospital.

We saw the doc's profile on the hospital site and found her to be very competent. We wanted someone young too so that we didn't get lectured about how irresponsible we had been etc. We saw her on the 10th itself in the evening.

I was rattled to find I was a month on

She was practical about it. She advised me for a complete blood count, a clotting time test, a test to determine my blood group and ultrasonography of the pelvis. The reports were normal and the sonography confirmed a 4-week 6-day pregnancy with a 4.2mm sized embryo.

That's really tiny. Well, doc explained that the age of gestation is calculated from the time you have your last period and I thought I had a 10-day pregnancy so it kinda rattled me a bit to know I was a month on.

Anyway, both of us did not once sway from our decision for abortion.

No side effects to the oral medication

The next day was a Sunday so on 12th after viewing my reports she gave me 4 oral tablets which I went home and took and told me to come on 14th.

I didn't have any side effects to the oral medication, just slight spotting.

She said the medicine was basically to stop the growth of the embryo.

The next tablets would cause pain and bleeding

Mentally we were pretty stressed out coz she told us the next course of tablets would cause the abortion and there would be pain and bleeding, which we both must bear at home. But we were in it together so it was comforting.

On 14th we got 4 tablets inserted intra-vaginally by the doctor. I was so embarrassed but so relieved that I got it done.

My partner was keen on getting me admitted coz Doc said there will be a lot of blood and a lot of pain for which she gave me pain killers, but I dissuaded him coz I felt I would be more comfortable at home. The doc told us that if she was advising patients to go home, obviously it was safe.

The excruciating pain never came

After a lot of debate, we finally went home and waited. The excruciating pain just did not come. It was about 4 hours since the insertion now. I slept twice. I had some contractions which I normally have during my period but nothing out of the blue. I was passing some clots and blood gradually, in parts.

Now we were worried, weren't the tablets working or something? So we called her up at 5. She reassured me that it was normal coz it was a very early pregnancy. That made me kinda happy that we took the decision as soon as possible without waiting for my next period which would make it an 8-week pregnancy with twice or thrice the pain.

Its the 16th today, yesterday I had some back and abdominal pain, and I took my 1st pain killer post the procedure.

I am passing a lot of large blood clots and blood more than my normal period.

Medical abortion wasn't as horrible as I expected

My partner has been god sent. He gives me a hot water bag every time I feel the slightest of pain and it really helps. He held my hand through everything, waking me up every 3 hours to change my pad, making food for me and making me feel loved most importantly. I feel closer to him than ever and I hope this period in our lives gets done.

It wasn't as horrible as I read about and expected it to be mainly because we went as soon as possible without contemplating too much about it. I was so mentally prepared for the pain that I could bear it.

There are times when I do feel guilty but this was in everyone's best interest. Even doc said 23 is no age to have babies. Like all bad times, this too shall pass.