Expert: Pat G - 6/22/2009

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!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks again for your response....

Wow that was alot to take in. I went to BC Womans Hospital in Canada and
they told me abortion would NOT effect future pregnancies in anyway that
abortion is 99% safe and safer then actually having a baby.. So I am a bit
confused... How can a hospital tell you facts that are not true?

And as for STD's I doubt that is possible. Not only was it performed in a
hospital honestly doubt they don't clean there tools!!  My fiance nor I have
STD's since I was tested at 5 weeks pregnant because we were going to go
through with the pregnancy but medication I was talking has negative effects
on the baby and didn't want to risk an unhealthy child.  

Answer
Sarah,

I do take into account all comments and ratings. Thank you for your rating, even though it wasn't all positive.

Please know that I have to tell you the truth. Keep your eyes open. You will get the information you need to know that what I am saying is true. I won't lie to you.

Please take care.



It is true that probably hospitals are a bit better about sterilizing instruments, but don't count on it. A lot of hospital personnel resent abortion patients, and this can result in substandard care. I remember years ago watching a movie of an abortion being done. I was sitting next to a nurse. Obviously, this film intended to show how safe abortion was. But together, we found sixteen breaches of good surgical procedure.

How can a hospital tell you facts that are not true? They do it all the time! In fact, they lied when they said abortion is 99% safe and safer than actually having a baby. If they had been reading the medical journals like they should be, they would know abortion causes serious problems. In fact, a compilation of medical papers showed that more than 1/3 of women who have one abortion suffer permanent damage to their reproductive systems. And the reason they say that abortion is safer than childbirth is because they are not taking into account that a prior abortion often causes complications in birth, but people never attribute these problems to the prior abortion. So the statistics just lump in this damage with all childbirth-related complications, when in fact, the complication would never have occurred if a woman hadn't had a prior abortion!

Another thing they do to skew the statistics is that when a woman goes to the emergency room after an abortion, and dies, the attending doctor puts down the complication as cause of death, even though without the abortion, the complication would never have occurred. Private individuals working with personal resources have uncovered hundreds of deaths that never made it into the records.

I'm sorry that you had to change your mind about going through with the pregnancy. However, again, someone may have lied to you about the medication you were taking. Some doctors will recommend abortion so that they won't be legally liable if the baby develops a problem. I don't think that's as common in Canada as it is in the States, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of this isn't done. All women worry about whether their baby will be normal. It's part of the territory. Most of the time, when a woman is taking medication, the baby will be OK. If she stops as soon as she finds out she is pregnant, one of two things is likely to happen. Either she will miscarry, or the baby will be OK. It's when a woman is a little further along that the damage in between is most likely to occur. I don't know what medication you were taking, but obviously, people try to err on the side of caution, so to speak, and tell a woman that there will be a problem.

That's about all I can tell you.

Take care.