How big can the medical abortion be?

Both surgical abortion and medical abortion are common ways to terminate pregnancy, and these two methods are more common in the early stages of pregnancy. When a woman is pregnant for more than 100 days, she can only choose to terminate the pregnancy by induced labor. Medical abortion is cheaper, but the time requirement is more stringent, and it usually needs to be performed within 50 days of pregnancy. So how old can medical abortion be performed?

If your menstruation is regular, with a period every 30 days and each period ending in 3-7 days, you can usually have a medical abortion about 40 days after your period stops. However, before performing medical abortion, you should first do a gynecological color ultrasound to check the size of the gestational sac in the uterine cavity. Generally, the size of the gestational sac is about 1.5 cm. In addition, before the abortion, blood cell analysis, coagulation analysis, and electrocardiogram must be performed. Abortion can only be performed if there are no abnormalities in the results of these tests and the contraindications to medical abortion have been eliminated. The most commonly used medical abortion is the oral administration of mifepristone combined with misoprostol. Mifepristone is usually taken for 2 days, and misoprostol is taken on the 3rd day. Generally, the pregnancy tissue will be discharged within 6 hours after taking misoprostol. During the abortion process, if heavy vaginal bleeding occurs, exceeding twice the normal menstrual volume or more, uterine curettage should be performed.

What is medical flow

Medical abortion refers to the use of injections or medication to achieve an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy without the need for surgery. The use of drugs to terminate pregnancy is the latest development in the past 20 years. Currently, the commonly used drugs are the combined use of mifepristone (Ru486) and prostaglandins. The former causes degeneration and necrosis of the uterine decidua and softening of the cervix, while the latter causes uterine contraction and promotes the expulsion of the embryo. Medical abortion is simple, effective, non-traumatic, and avoids the complications that may be caused by operations into the uterine cavity. Currently used to terminate pregnancies up to 8 weeks.

1. Advantages and disadvantages of medical abortion

Advantages: It avoids the pain and certain complications of surgical abortion, and achieves the purpose of stopping pregnancy if pregnant and inducing menstruation if not pregnant.

Disadvantages: Some women experience prolonged vaginal bleeding after miscarriage, and a few may have incomplete miscarriage and still require surgical curettage.

2. Who can have medical abortion?

Healthy women who are 5 to 7 weeks pregnant and are not suitable for surgical abortion, such as:

1. For those who have had a caesarean section within one year, an abortion within six months, or have had multiple abortions and are now pregnant, since the uterus has not fully recovered, surgical abortion is prone to risks such as damage and bleeding.

2. For women who take steroid contraceptives for a long time or are breastfeeding, it is best not to have a surgical abortion because their uterine wall is thin, soft and fragile and easily damaged.

3. For women with uterine malformation or extreme tilted uterus, surgery may be difficult.

4. Women who are extremely afraid of surgery or have experienced symptoms such as dizziness, palpitations, cold sweats, and pale complexion during surgery.