I'm 16 and had a medical abortion at 10 weeks.
By anonymous on 05/02/2015
When I was going through an abortion, I searched the Internet in hope to find answers to my thousand questions so I promised myself when it was all over I would write my own story and hope it would help other people having the same issue. So today I had an abortion at 10 weeks. I was late for my period-after having a totally irregular cycle anyway-and decided to do a pregnancy test with my local sexual health clinic. I remember sitting there with my boyfriend of 2 years when she told me the result and straight away we knew what we were going to do. Abortion. With us both being only 16 and in college we knew a baby was not an option for us. We were referred to hospital 10 days after.
On the Monday, the first appointment, I remember being so worried but the nurses there were all very comforting and calmed me down. I was given a scan(I didn't look at the screen) and was told to return the following day-Tuesday- for the first tablet of the process. That next day I was there half an hour, the nurse gave me the tablet and told me what would happen on the day of the abortion-Thursday.
So Thursday came and I arrived at the hospital at 9:15 and was taken straight into a room to fill out final paperwork and then four tablets were inserted. It took 30 minutes for the cramping to kick in and the sickness, but a heat pad and antibiotics provided by the nurse helped that a lot. I was told walking around would help so I took a walk around the hospital and felt a pop in my belly(it sounds worse than it was) I went to the toilet and passed blood. At around 10:30 the pains in my belly got slightly worse so I went to the toilet and passed what I knew straight away was the foetus. I called the nurse like she said and she said it had passed and now I needed to wait for tissue to pass. This happened at around 11:15 and the process was finally over.
I was told that it had been successful and I just had to wait for my bleeding to die down and to make sure everything was okay. The cramps died down but not completely so I was offered another heat pad and some dinner which also improved how I was feeling. I was then told I could go at 3 pm and the nurse provided me with a pill to insert into my bottom before I went to bed to stop infection and a pack of antibiotics to take everyday, twice a day for a week. I was also supplied with 3 months worth of the contraceptive pill and condoms.
Although it wasn't a nice experience to go through I felt comfortable and supported of my decision. Being with 4 other women helped and having my boyfriend by my side the whole time definitely made me feel better. My abortion was today and just 5 hours after going home I can say the cramping has stopped and the bleeding is only light like being on your period. I didn't tell my parents about being pregnant because I didn't want to disappoint them so I was pleased when the nurse told me everything would be kept confidential and even my GP wouldn't find out.
If I had advice for the women reading this I would tell them, don't let Internet stories scare you-they make it sound a lot worse. When you think you have passed the foetus-don't look, I didn't look and I think my day would have gone differently if I had. And be strong-tell your partner or whoever and just know everything will be okay in the end.