Self-Managed Abortion: What to Expect After Taking Abortion Pills | Episode 6

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Video transcript:
Lesson 6: What will I experience during an abortion with pills?
Before having an abortion with pills, it’s important to know what to expect. Being well-informed will help to reduce stress and anxiety, and can lead to a safer experience. In this video, we’ll talk about what you may experience during an abortion with pills.

After taking mifepristone, you probably won’t feel anything, so you can go about your normal activities. Some women have light bleeding after taking mifepristone, and that’s okay too.
Misoprostol is the medication that will start the main bleeding and cramping involved in the abortion process. The day you take the misoprostol is the day you will need more privacy, to rest, and to plan to be at home.

You can expect the bleeding and cramping to start within 1-3 hours of taking misoprostol. Both bleeding and cramping are signs that the abortion pills are working to push out the pregnancy.
The bleeding is usually similar to or heavier than a menstrual period, and can include blood clots, which is normal. Some women may have a little more or a little less bleeding, and that’s normal too. The heaviest bleeding and pain typically occurs 4-6 hours after taking misoprostol when the pregnancy is being pushed out.

Remember that you can take painkillers like ibuprofen right after taking misoprostol to help reduce pain. Putting a hot water bottle or heating pad on your lower belly can also help with pain.

Aside from cramping and bleeding, you may also experience nausea, dizziness, chills, diarrhoea, headache, or a temporary rise in temperature after taking misoprostol. All of these are normal side effects of misoprostol and will mostly likely go away on their own. You can reduce these side effects by resting, drinking plenty of water, and eating light foods.

Most women do not see or notice anything when the pregnancy comes out. Some women may see the gestational sac, which is white and sometimes looks like a small piece of sponge. If the pregnancy is around 9 weeks or later, women may also see a small embryo. Women can choose to not look at the menstrual pads, wrap them up, and throw them away as they would during their monthly bleeding.

Within 24 hours, the bleeding and cramping should begin to decrease, and most women start to feel better.

In order to be prepared for the abortion, it can be useful to have some things on hand. This includes large maxi pads (not tampons), painkillers, a hot water bottle or heating pad, access to a toilet, light snacks, a friend or support person, and a comfortable bed or mattress. It may also be helpful to think about what time of day you will be able to have some privacy and be free from other responsibilities like work, school, or child care.

In our next video, we answer the question, “What are signs of complication during an abortion with pills?”

[krystalm.]

I really appreciate all you ladies commenting ur stories, it really helps us others who are afraid to start it and afraid to do this journey....much appreciated 🖤

[mayrac]

My experience:
8 weeks pregnant
Day 1: took the pill at 3:55pm
Day 2: Inserted the 4 pills on my cheeks and waited 30 minutes to dissolve, and rinsed with water after 30 mins.
6:30 I began to have the runs bug time. No cramping.
7:50pm I felt a pop and drop in my lower abdomen. It didn’t hurt. I got up and began to bleed. It was not very painful for me, but I will say it was bloody. I called emergency services because I felt my body go numb. The next morning, I was fine. Still bleeding just not a lot.. it’s been almost 2 months, and I feel extremely depressed. Please make sure u have support..

[RachelllTT]

I did the pills yesterday. Was very lucky my experience was near perfect. I was 5 weeks 2 days. By doctor’s guidance — I took the miso by vaginal route 12 hours after the mise. I expected it to start quick, but it actually took 5.5 hours to start bleeding after the miso. I passed the pregnancy tissue about 1 hr after start of bleeding. It did come out as a slimy clot like others said. Cramping for me was VERY mild cuz I was so early in pregnancy. It was just a dull ache. The bleeding though was MUCH heavier than I expected. I read that before 6 weeks bleeding can be light. But my bleeding was heavy. Far heavier than any period I ever had. Lots of blood. But the heavy bleeding was over after 6 hours and then very light after that. So I got it all over with very quick. Overall quick and easy process for me. I’d recommend doing the pills as early as possible for the most comfortable experience.

[BaDumTss]

I was 6 weeks pregnant, went to the gynecologist and they told me to take the first pill right as I walk out of there (I waited a little bit longer so I took it in the evening as I had to meet up with my parents that knew about it but I didn’t want to feel weird while with them).
I started bleeding and cramping the day after, but lightly. After 36 hrs I took the 4 vaginal pills and ibuprofen (4 pills cause I was being paranoid- I don’t recommend taking that much, nobody recommends it) at the same time.
Laid in bed for almost 5 hours.
First hour was alright, no big pain, no nausea, no fever. Pretty much the same for the next 2 hrs.
After 3hrs I could feel the gurgling of my stomach, intestines and uterus. I waited one more hour and then I felt like I had to use the toilet for no2 (that is usually diarrhea).
So I got up, I sat on the toilet and I eliminated 2 small blood cloths super easily so I thought “Okay, this was it, it was fairly easy”. I got up, I had cramps but not stronger than a normal period, my boobies were starting to deflate and they weren’t as sensitive as before, but there was still discomfort.
I had to travel by plane in 2 days from the day it happened and since my doctor said it’s safe to travel I just believed her and got up the plane (in the meantime I had light bleeding and cramps).
In the plane I started to feel some cramps and pressure in my uterus, but I thought it’s normal so I just tried to take a nap (the flight was 3hrs).
I get back home from the airport at around 6-7 pm, I ate a little and after that my uterus started to hurt badly I’d say an 8/10. I felt like something was “blocked” so again I went to use the restroom.
After I was done with no2 (that was more solid compared to the first bathroom trip), I started bleeding way more than previously, and some gooey stuff started to slide out, followed by the sack, so that was the moment I eliminated the most important part (not the first time as I thought initially). It looked like a lizard tbh, a little off putting. 😆
But after that, even the blood changed colors to a more reddish color (first bleeding was a little on the brown side).
What I can tell you for sure is every body is different (some can push it out the same day, some have to wait a little, and I haven’t been told that) and I’m just really happy I didn’t eliminate it on the plane. The doctor said that it’s perfectly alright to travel, which was a big fat lie, but I believed it cause, you know…they know better.
My advice for women that are not strong enough mentally, is to just do the vacuum thing if possible, because it’s less painful, way faster and the recovery also takes a shorter time. I also had this done at 12 weeks last year and it was not at all traumatizing, compared to this.


Don’t listen to the people that are mean, they are probably stuck now with a kid they did not want in the first place.
I love you all, you’re warriors! 🫶🏻🫶🏻

[MmesomaSandra-gt]

I just took mifepristone now, I pray it works, i will take misoprostol tomorrow

[Jasminemarie]

So I took the pill a few days ago and I experienced just about all of the symptoms. For the first pill, I was cramping a little bit on and off and light spotting. The second round of pills kicked in IMMEDIATELY. Within 20 minutes, I had the worst cramps I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I was sitting in a ball and wanting to cry. I get cramps during my period but this was like 10 times worse. I had lower back pain, chills, loose stool, and I was really nauseous. Thankfully I did not throw up. I tried to stay hydrated but it was hard to do. I ate stuff like soup and crackers bc I didn’t want to use the bathroom too much. The pain lasted about two hrs straight. I was bleeding A LOT. I’m about two hrs, a huge clot of blood came out, bigger than I ever seen. That gave me the impression that it worked. After the two hrs, I was cramping on and off but it wasn’t as bad. The next day, I didn’t feel any cramps and the bleeding slowed down and I feel way better. I would say to anybody that wants to do this, be prepared. Have someone there that can look after you after you take the 4 pills on the second day for a little while, doesn’t have to be all day. I also took ibuprofen. It did not work AT ALL! I took anti nausea medicine. I think it helped some. Overall, it’s worse than a period but it’s not unbearable. You want to die in the beginning but it doesn’t last as long as you probably think it will so it’s doable. We are women, we can do it lol. Btw I was 7 weeks, it probably hurts more the further out you are.

[moraaado]

In case the comments are scaring you, heres my experience from yesterday:
I took the 4 misoprostol under my tongue for 30 minutes and swallowed the remainder with water. Within 15 minutes after this was done, I began bleeding. Then, almost immediate nausea followed by cramps. It felt like a very very crampy period along with taking a pill on an empty stomach. Heavy bleeding and clotting + diarrhea. Basically my normal period symptoms intesified. This all mellowed out after 6 hours. I assume my body was tired because I normally sleep around 6 hours, but last night I slept 10 hours. Right now, this morning, I only have mild cramping (almost dull) and normal period type bleeding.

I regret reading the comments beforehand because I was terrified before i took the pills. It was bad but not as bad as i thought it would be.

[byefelicia]

Heat pads helped! Before you take the adviced dosage keep these essentials (hot water, boiler, extra blankets etc) ready.
Also, if you have someone beside you ask them to give you back rubs. I had to do them all by myself.

But I got through.

I took mine today afternoon and after half an hour the cramping started. It was honestly the worst physical pain I’ve ever been through. I got fever with chills, sweating and shivering Diarrhoea and extreme nausea but I tried my best to not puke the medicines out.

Stay strong ladies.

[briannegeier]

Videos like this are so helpful for me. I just ordered my pills online today after a lot of thinking, emotions, and tears. This was a difficult choice for me to make, but I know that in the long run it will be the right one. It’s amazing to see so many supportive ladies on here❤….I know I’ll need it when the time comes to take my pills.

[nothingsimpossible]

Thank you ladies for sharing. My situation was different. My husband and I were excited to conceive since it was planned. I was spotting between 5-7 weeks pregnant. At 7 weeks we seen a heartbeat and at 10 weeks we went for our appointment and the Dr said no heartbeat was detected and did another ultrasound right away. They said our baby had no heartbeat. I had no cramping nor bleeding for 3 weeks. I’m now almost 11 weeks and since nothing has passed and no signs of cramping/bleeding the Dr prescribed this medication. I’m about to take it as we speak. I’m so torn and we both have been crying. I just received my medication tonight to take. God knows this was never in our plans nor seen this coming! Keep us in prayer especially me because I’m an emotional roller coaster right now!

[zenobiacausine]

hi this is my story. i just got done with my second abortion with the pills a week back and i personally came back to comment on these videos cus reading the comment section back then gave me a bad panic attack, like i couldn't breathe i couldn't sleep, i would keep reading others' horrible experiences and imagine the worst like bleeding myself to death since my bf (now ex) had also left me all alone during this whole process. so you might find this same comment in most of the abortion videos but this is just to help others when i say it's NOT as bad as you might think. i mean yes everybody is different and has different experiences but reading some of the comments honestly made me wanna kill myself cus i am someone with zero pain threshold and i really thought that would be the easier way out.
i was 5-6 weeks pregnant acc to my ultrasound but 7 weeks acc to my LMP.
anyway, the pain (it's the cramping) is definitely bad but NOT unbearable and let me tell you i didn't take a single painkiller cus my doc told me that the painkiller will relax the uterus muscles instead of it contracting which essentially expels out the pregnancy tissues and taking painkillers might also lead to retained product of conceptions which will ultimately lead to surgical removal of pregnancy tissue rendering the whole abortion pills practically useless and i didn't want to take any chances.
the only medication i took was that of nausea cus i was already having bad morning sickness after the first pill (mifepristone) and didn't wanna throw up my other pills (misoprostol) or have its effectiveness reduced by any chance.
The first pill really didn't do much except give me nausea and then around 38 hours later i took my anti nausea medicine and then an hour later, four pills of misoprostol, but i took them in two sets. Like i took 2 misoprotols (under my tongue for 30 mins) first and then 2 pills again after a gap of 2 hrs as per the direction of my gynae. i think it probably had to do with dealing with the pain since i was taking it all raw. The bleeding and cramping started within an hour. i bled the heaviest the first two days and it became lighter by the third day.
i even went to my doc and asked for another 2 pills of misoprostol and went through the abortion process AGAIN just to make sure the process really worked to the fullest.
some of my top tips would be please wear warm clothes or have a heater with you cus the chills can get pretty bad and getting it done in winter just made it harder to deal with the cold.
and get loaded with lots of electrolytes and don't eat anything spicy cus the diarrhoea can get pretty bad (my asshole burned bad cus i previously had something spicy i think)
also, try to drink warm and eat warm, idk, i just feel like that helps too.
and ofc, always have a heat pad ready with you to help you w the cramps.

REMEMBER when you're cramping, just tell yourself it's the pills doing its job and the uterus expelling out the pregnancy WHICH is what you want. also the chills, nausea and headache go away after just few hours so just hold it in your best and stay a lil stronger for those few hours. my diarrhoea also went pretty quick like in a single day.
and well the cramps, they come and go. i am still bleeding although it's very light now and mostly happens when i get out of bed or use the washroom.

the first abortion i had was 2 years ago where i had to do it surgically cus i was a lil late for the pills. after both of my experiences i would definitely choose the latter. Ofc, in surgery you are sedated and feel 0 pain and everything gets over within hours but i would rather go through a lil pain at my own comfort in home if it means the process can get done a whole less invasive. if given a choice, i definitely wouldn't want external surgical material disturbing my uterus if i think of long term (rare BUT can cause scarring).

all in all, this experience was more of mental than physical for me. my bf had left me when i was the most vulnerable and the pain i felt physically was NOTHING to the hurt i felt mentally. it takes two to make this mistake but i was the only one getting punished. i wouldn't even wish it on my worst enemy how mentally disturbed i was. last night was the first time i slept in a week and i feel so much better. i didn't tell nobody except a friend just incase there's an emergency and i need her to come. i had to do everything A to Z all alone but this lesson has only made me stronger. if i could get through this alone, anybody else can too. trust me on this. i still curse at god and myself sometimes for being born a female but i am giving myself time to heal. pls do take care of yourself, know that you're not the only one so hang on tight, you'll be just fine.

[agbikimiamen]

This video is really helpful. I started d process yesterday. Took mifepristone yesterday and didn't feel anything significant. I then took the misoprostol, swallowed 2 and inserted 2 and slept off. Its almost 10hrs since I took it and I didn't feel so much cramping but d bleeding for the first 4-6 hrs were very heavy with everything shedding

[Ghostrrr]

Worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. This was a wake up call for me. I’ve always said I want loads of kids, but the pain I went through is probably nothing compared to how contractions and labour is. There is no way I can deal with that amount of pain over and over again.

[MunachiFavour-lg]

I did mine alone 😔 after much thinking about I had to do it ...I was raped and I got 3:08 never wanted the child .. that what motivated me to go ahead with the abortion

Although I lived with my parents, no one knew I was pregnant. No one knew I had an abortion....but to be honest, that was the most painful day of my life ....
I only had cramps which made me cry like a mad woman 😅 ... but it was successful...
I'm so happy I'm free

[incognito]

Having experienced a surgical and medical. If I could go back I would never opt for the medical again. Was horrendous mainly due to the constant sickness, hot and cold chills and pain. I’ve never been sick like that in my life. Put me to sleep any day.

[andiewade]

Being in the bath was crucial to me. I took the 4 pills to induce cramping, and intended to just take ibuprofen and relax with a heating pad. But once the pain started, the heating pad didn't help me at all. So I climbed in the bath tub (I didn't even have a bath stopper because i had just moved into this apartment, I had to use a pickle jar lid to create suction over the hole, very silly) and keep HOT water coming. When the hot water ran out, I had my boyfriend heat pots of water on the stove. I stared at the ceiling while I played relaxing piano music from my laptop on a loop. Kept a cup on the side of the tub to continuously pour water over my belly. Completely lost track of time. Once you start to relax, and focus on your breathing, the pain-and-relief ebb-and-flpw starts to feel natural and primal. The whole ordeal reminded me of an acid trip, in terms of duration and peaks. You lose track of time. After I got out of the bath and went to bed, I slept like a rock

[OforiJanet-hnhj]

I want to know if the misoprostol I inserted worked, am only seeing the melted discharge of the misoprostol coming out, am not bleeding as well

[ankita]

Just sharing my experience here..i was mum till week 6 2 days and lost my baby due to either pcod or chromosonal abnormalities..doctor suggested medical abortion through pills at home as gestation age was only 6 weeks 2 days. Took 3 pills (with half an hour interval eg. 1 at 9 am then 2nd at 9:30 and 3rd at 10 am). After 48 hours, inserted 2 pills into vagina (you need to push it inside) and another 2 after 6 hours. For first 3.5 hours it was quite difficult for me..cramps and at one point i nearly fainted but after 3.5 hours.. bleeding started and then cramps were gone..i felt fetus was out of my body within half an hour of bleeding. Cramps were only there till bleeding hadn't started. From day 2, it was light bleeding just like regular periods and everything was over within a week.

This was just me sharing my experience. When i was about to go through this, i didn't find too many helpful videos, so just letting one helpful comment for those in need. People who need to go through abortion because of personal reasons, no judgement there.

I hope and pray i get to be a mother soon with blessings of God! 🙏🤞

[emayan]

Omg this is the worse thing I ever went through in my life. I fr thought I was going to die. I will NEVER do this again. Ladies please do the surgery, it’s better and less pain. I really hate I put my body through this. A big blood clot got stuck inside me and made me had contractions for 9 hours

[kingjoe]

My gf had taken the this pill this morning and oh man. A lot of blood. Also she fainted a couple times. I had changed her took her straight to the ER. She’s still in the hospital and I am waiting out side all day. She’s texted me she is doing fine now. But I’m pretty sure she fainted because everything she ate or drank water she was constantly throwing up.