The pregnancy hadn't passed and I was worrying about infection from an incomplete termination

Failed Medical Abortion - successful on the second attempt. I want to tell this story as I found it difficult to find experiences similar to mine when this happened to me. I won't go into my decision to have an abortion, just what happened after.

My doctor was fantastic, giving brilliant, considered, caring advice - a credit to the NHS. I read a lot about medical abortion before I opted for it, so I knew what to expect. Although difficult to arrange two separate appointments around work and clinic opening hours I managed, just 24 hours apart.

Read similar stories using these links:

• stories involving medical abortion
• failed medical abortion stories
• accounts mentioning Marie Stopes clinics

I wondered if I should wait longer in between the pills, but at the Marie Stopes clinic, they insisted it was OK. I was about 7 weeks when I took the first pill, I went back the next day and took the second pills orally.

I came home and about an hour later I started with very strong cramping pains, this lasted for about eight hours, it was very painful. I was physically sick because of the pain, but I only bled a little, much less than a period and then it stopped. I also did not pass any clots that were bigger than a raisin.

It felt to me like the pregnancy hadn't passed. I called the helpline and they said it could take up to two weeks. After three days, nothing had happened and I felt like my life was on hold. I was beginning to worry about getting an infection from an incomplete termination.

I called again and made a follow-up appointment for one week after I had taken the first set of pills. At this appointment it was confirmed by a scan that some of the pregnancy was still in place, I felt awful, I thought I was going to have to have a surgical abortion, but fortunately, I was told that I could try again with the medical abortion.

I still felt awful that I had to go through the whole procedure again, but I had no choice. That day I took the pills and inserted the pessaries at the same time.

Once I returned home the pain started again after about an hour and this time I bled much more heavily, passing the pregnancy that evening, about 8 hours after taking the pills. This time was intense, very painful contractions, I was pacing, breathing etc to get through the process. But I felt several large clots pass and I knew that it was over. I was actually quite scared about passing the clots, but that part was very quick and did not hurt at all.

This is now five months ago and my cycle is just about returning to normal in terms of regularity and heaviness - for the first few months my period was very light and did not feel like a normal period, I think it is my body recovering.

I hope that if you also end up having the medical abortion twice, that this helps. I found it quite disheartening to read all the literature that says that only 1 in 100 don't work - I hope that knowing that others have gone through this and that it is OK in the end, is helpful for others.