Medical Termination

Pregnancy Termination

Pregnancy termination is a procedure to remove pregnancy tissues by surgery, medications or a combination of both. It depends on the duration of your pregnancy, your preference and your medical history. Medication can help the woman who is 9 to 14 weeks pregnant in the termination of pregnancy.

Doctors also recommend medication to soften and open the cervix. With the help of medicines causing uterine contractions, doctors perform the abortion process. They also combine these medications with surgery if it is needed.

Everything You Need to Know About Medical Termination

Medical Abortion | Surgical Abortion | Risk of Pregnancy Termination | When to See a Doctor

What is a medical abortion?

Medical abortion refers to the process of bringing out a fetus or pregnancy with the help of medicine. Doctors perform it within seventy days of gestation period.

Progesterone is an essential pregnancy hormone, and the drug Mifepristone counters its effect. It is an oral medicine that causes few side effects like vomiting, nausea, pain in the pelvis and vaginal bleeding.

Taking misoprostol after 24 to 48 hours makes mifepristone more effective. Around 92% and 97% of women have a complete abortion within two weeks following this combination.

The combination of misoprostol and mifepristone helps to perform a medical abortion. Swallowing the pills has several side effects, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. The effective one is the insertion of misoprostol through the vagina.

Sub Treatments For Gynecology

What is surgical abortion?

If you are pregnant and do not want to continue the pregnancy, manual vacuum aspiration can be done up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. It also helps in the removal of the remaining tissue of an incomplete miscarriage.

In this procedure, the doctor inserts the flexible and tiny tube into the uterus through the cervix to suction out the pregnancy material. Alternatively, they use the handheld syringe in low resource settings. The doctor may apply local anaesthesia to the cervix to decrease the pain during the procedure. In this, the patient remains conscious, but only the area gets numb.

Usually, doctors give the injection into the vein to decrease anxiety and the general response of the body. It lasts for less than fifteen minutes and is known as short general anaesthesia. Doctors perform suction and evacuation, S & E within 12 weeks after the first day of the last menstrual period. It is one of the most common procedures to end a pregnancy.

They prescribe antibiotics to prevent the infection. In this procedure, they insert a hollow tube and an electric pump into the uterus. The latter sucks out the material out of the uterus. It takes only fifteen minutes. With local anaesthesia and intravenous medication, it becomes easy to reduce the pain and decreases anxiety.

Dilation and curettage (D and C) is another similar process of pregnancy termination. Doctors use curettes, which is a sharp-edged instrument to remove the pregnancy tissue. In this procedure, suction ensures the removal of all the contents from the uterus. The early stage of pregnancy is the best time to perform it. Nowadays, curettes are either not used or minimally used to minimise chances of intrauterine adhesion formation.

If a person wants to terminate the pregnancy within 14 and 21 weeks, the first expulsion of a fetus is achieved and then dilation and evacuation (D and E) are perfect for them. It has similarities with suction D and C, but it requires larger instruments. It requires more time than others. The cervix needs to stretch more than D and C to create a larger size. Doctors use suctions to ensure the removal of all the pregnancy tissues.

In some cases, doctors cannot perform dilation and curettage (D and C). Then, they have to perform abdominal hysterotomy. This process removes the fetus from the uterus by making an incision in the abdomen. In other words, hysterotomy is like a mini caesarian.

Risk of pregnancy termination

There are some risks in medical abortion like bleeding, infection and incomplete abortion that indicate remaining tissue in the uterine cavity. These are rare problems, and their treatments are available as well. Doctors repeat the dose of medication to handle an incomplete abortion and continue it until the pregnancy ends. Doctors also use antibiotics for treatment. If one bleeds heavily, they recommend treatment accordingly, including iron infusions and blood transfusion.

There are minimal risks in a surgical abortion as well. During the surgical procedure, the risk increases with continuous bleeding, incomplete removal of pregnancy tissue, infection of the uterus and poking a hole in the womb or injury to the womb known as uterine perforation.

If there is any remaining tissue in the womb, doctors may perform another surgical procedure to remove those tissue. In rare cases, women become infertile even if they face a complicated abortion. Very rarely a surgical abortion can cause complications like perforation or incomplete removal of pregnancy tissue, heavy bleeding, and endometriosis, resulting in infertility.

To minimize these complications, we at Gunjan IVF World, always do the procedures under the guidance of expert doctors and Ultrasound.

When to see a doctor

If you face the following health issues after the abortion, you need to talk to your doctor. If you have a fever over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, it is concerning.

Some can bleed heavy after the abortion. If the bleeding is heavier than normal menstruation and you need to use a pad per hour or passing large clots, you need to consult the doctor or physician.

You need to see a doctor if you feel severe pain in the back and abdomen and have foul-smelling vaginal discharge.

Medical termination tablets should not be used without consulting with the doctor. The cost of medical termination of pregnancy varies depending on the clinic.

Our Expert Team