What are the risks?

Many illegal abortions are unsafe and are carried out without proper information, resulting in women getting infections or other complications. Because women often don't dare to go to the hospital, treatments are often too late.

Therefore, it is important to follow our instructions carefully and seek medical advice as soon as possible in case of any of the following:

Heavy bleeding

Symptom: Bleeding that lasts for more than 2 hours and soaks more than 2 maxi sanitary pads per hour. Feeling dizzy or light-headed can be a sign of too much blood loss. This is dangerous to your health and must be treated by a doctor.
Treatment: a vacuum aspiration (curettage). Very rarely (less than 0.2%) a blood transfusion is needed. When available, a woman should start taking 2 misoprostol under the tongue immediately at home before going to the hospital. For these cases it is advisable always to have 2 extra tablets of misoprostol available.

Incomplete abortion

Symptoms: heavy or persistent bleeding and/or persistent severe pain.
Treatment: a vacuum aspiration (curettage),or 2 tablets of misoprostol under the tongue during half an hour (WHO). In case of any doubts, or heavy clinical signs please have a check up with a doctor.

Infection

Symptom: If you have a fever (more than 38 degrees Celsius) for more than 24 hours, or you have a fever of more than 39 degrees, there might be an infection that needs treatment.
Treatment: antibiotics and/or vacuum aspiration.

If you think you might have a complication you should go to a doctor immediately. If you live in a place where abortion is a crime and you don’t have doctor you trust, you can still access medical care. You do not have to tell the medical staff that you tried to induce an abortion; you can tell them that you had a spontaneous miscarriage. Doctors have the obligation to help in all cases.

The symptoms are exactly the same and the doctor will not be able to see or test for any evidence of an abortion, as long as the pills have completely dissolved. If you took the pills vaginally, you must check with your finger to make sure that they are dissolved. Traces of the pills may be found in the vagina up to four days after inserting them.

How long will it take before Misoprostol will have effect and for how long will symptoms (bellyache, nausea, blood loss etc.) last?

In most cases Misoprostol will have an effect within 4 hours and you will start…