AboutPat G Expertise I can help women with the consideration of their decision, and with resources, and I can share my own experiences as the mother of seven and grandmother of six. My approach is to show love and concern, and help women work through the issues, emotional, spiritual, practical. I also help women deal with boyfriend and family issues.
Experience I have been working with women who are considering abortion for several years. I also work with women who have had abortions. Our family has also experienced adoption, so I can talk about that as well.
Education/Credentials I am mostly self-taught. I also studied midwifery for awhile. I have spent years doing research on this topic. In fact, I have been doing research and working in this area since the early 1970's. I have been helping women online for a few years, under the guidance of a woman who was formally training in counseling.
Question QUESTION: I had an abortion on friday and bled for the day, then saturday night my fiance
and I had protected sex even though I know we were not supposed to one thing
lead to another it didnt hurt or anything..Im spotting a bit of brown blood but
not even enough to wear a pad. Im really scared about getting an infection. The
clinic gave me antibiotics to take there. Will I be ok?
ANSWER: Hi, Sarah,
Yes, you should be concerned. After an abortion, your uterus is raw, and infection can easily enter your system. I can't really tell you if you will be OK or not. Take it easy, and take one day at a time, and watch and see if you have any symptoms of infection.
There is no such thing as "protected sex". Condoms don't work. They can also allow the transmission of some diseases. And other methods of "protection" aren't much better. Please think about what you are doing. You are still putting yourself at risk.
Also, please be aware that birth control pills or other hormones also lower your resistance to infections. And they don't work when you take antibiotics.
Keep an eye on yourself. If you suspect any problems, please see a doctor. Let me know how you do.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thanks for your response. About how long would it take to show infection? I
terminated a 7 week pregnancy, and read somewhere that the cervix closes
within 24 hours especially if bleeding stopped. Is that true? I've made a doctors
appointment for friday that will be a week after my procedure, will she be able
to tell then if everything is ok?
Answer Hi, Sarah,
You're welcome.
The thing about abortion is that nothing is predictable. It's a serious disruption in a woman's body. Every case is different. I wouldn't put too much stock in the claim that the cervix closes within 24 hours. If you're spotting, the cervix is open.
Hopefully, your doctor isn't the one who supplied the abortion. There would be a conflict of interest problem there.
There's no way to tell if everything is OK, because there are so many kinds of damage an abortion can do, and some of them don't show up right away. Any kind of STD, for example, could take time to incubate before you experience first symptoms. For example, HIV incubates for months. And yes, you can get an STD from an abortion, particularly if the abortionist isn't sterilizing instruments properly, or is re-using disposable instruments. And a lot of them don't. (In fact, health departments are closing a lot of facilities because they are so bad.) Since you were 7 weeks, I assume that you had a surgical abortion. If you had a pill abortion, the shift in hormones can make you more vulnerable to STDs. If there is internal injury causing bleeding, it can take awhile for enough blood to bleed for you to notice a difference. Damage to the cervix is inevitable. The process of forcing open the cervix causes micro-tears that weaken it. In early pregnancy, the cervix is "green" and tightly closed. I'm not aware that anybody can observe these without a lot of trouble, but the consequence is that some women cannot carry the weight of a full term baby in the future. This leads to prematurity or miscarriage. If the prematurity occurs very early, this can cause the baby to develop cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or autism. Obviously, this consequence won't show up for awhile. Another consequence is that the prior abortion could affect the safety of a future birth. For example, it can cause the placenta of the baby to fasten too close to the cervix. This is because the uterus is so badly scarred that there is no place higher for the placenta to fasten. When the placenta fastens too low, this is called placenta previa. The placenta could be torn loose by the birth process, and this can lead to hemorrhage. The doctor has to do a Caesarian section. Prior abortion can also prolong labor, and this may also make a Caesarian necessary.
Another type of infection is called pelvic inflammatory disease. This can make a woman unable to conceive. A woman may or may not be aware she has it. Scarring across the Fallopian tubes can cause a future tubal pregnancy. This is a death sentence for the baby, and threatens the life of the mother. Emergency surgery is required.
Along with many other possibilities, finally, there is a heightened risk of breast cancer. It usually strikes when a woman is in her 40's, but can strike earlier. About 1/4 of the women who get this type of breast cancer die from it. If this was your first pregnancy, the risk is further heightened, and if there is a history of breast cancer in your family, it is virtually inevitable.
And then there are emotional consequences that can cause some serious problems. That's a whole other topic.
If you make it past a couple of weeks without any signs of an infection, this leaves STDs and PID. But the abortionist was concerned about immediate infection.
I realize this is some pretty heavy stuff, and I'm sorry, but I hope it helps. Please take care of yourself!
