If your husband wants you to get an abortion, learn how to recognize pressure, understand your legal rights, consider your...
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The question, “What is an incomplete abortion?,” is one you may not have asked during your abortion consultation. The question has a couple of different answers; we will be focusing on one.
The type of incomplete abortion that we most often discuss with our patients is one that occurs because of an elective abortion. An elective abortion is the purposeful termination of a viable pregnancy.
One of the most common risks associated with a medical or surgical abortion, more often a medical abortion, is that the contents of the uterus are not completely expelled. That means that the pregnancy has been terminated, but parts of the fetus and/or pregnancy are still in the uterus. This is an incomplete abortion.
Common signs of an incomplete abortion are heavy bleeding, lower abdominal pain, pelvic pain, or infection which may be evidenced by fever, chills, or foul-smelling discharge.
Heavy bleeding and tissue loss are expected from a medical abortion for several hours immediately following the at-home abortion. In fact, you may see large clots and identifiable parts of the pregnancy.
However, if the pregnancy has passed and you are still bleeding a pad an hour for 2 hours, this is reason for concern, and you should seek medical attention.
Assessing a normal amount of bleeding after an abortion can be confusing. It is not uncommon to have bleeding for 2 or more weeks after an abortion, it may be quite heavy at first and then lessen with time.
But if your bleeding has slowed and you find that you are suddenly bleeding heavily and passing clots or are soaking a pad in an hour for 2 hours, you need to call your doctor right away or go to the Emergency Department (ED) for evaluation of an incomplete abortion or other complication.
It is highly recommended that a follow-up exam occurs 1-2 weeks after an abortion. This is especially true if you had a medical abortion to confirm that you don’t have an incomplete abortion and for the doctor to assess for any complications.
How and if this follow up is done depends on the doctor, but it is your health, and you should insist that you be evaluated whether the doctor thinks it is ‘necessary’ or not. Untreated, an incomplete abortion can be dangerous and can lead to complications including severe hemorrhage or sepsis.
It is also very important that you know that you can get pregnant again right after an abortion – meaning before you have your first period after the procedure. Unfortunately, we frequently see women this happens to. There are 2 ways you can prevent this from happening to you: either by practicing abstinence or by talking to your doctor about which pregnancy preventive measure is right for you.
A little more information, just because…
The terms spontaneous abortion and miscarriage are both used to describe the natural loss of a pregnancy up to 20 weeks gestation. These same 2 terms, with the addition of early pregnancy loss, are commonly used to describe the natural loss of a pregnancy in the first trimester.
The first trimester goes through 12 weeks and 6 days of the pregnancy, and approximately 80% of losses occur during this time. All 3 terms can be used interchangeably, sometimes within a single conversation, which can cause confusion since they are all describing the same pregnancy outcome.
Here at Alcove Health, we can help when you get a positive pregnancy test. If you’re trying to make a decision about your next step, it’s important that you fully understand both what’s going on inside your body and the risks – like an incomplete abortion – associated with any decision you are considering.
We want to educate you on all your options so you can make an informed pregnancy decision. That’s why we provide lab-grade pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STI testing, and options consultations, all for free and with total confidentiality. Call or visit our appointment page to request more information or schedule your appointment today.
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