Expert: Pat G - 5/26/2010

Question
I had an abortion back in December 2009, it's now May and when I was having sex, I started to bleed. This wasn't the first time it has happened after my abortion but this last time it keeps getting worse. Now it's been two days after the intercourse and I'm still light bleeding, in slight pain, and it never was this long I ususally only bled for fifteen minutes and it went away. Now I'm worried something is wrong with me since it's been so long since the abortion, is this common at all?

Answer
Hello, Marianne,

I don't know how common your problem is. Probably that's not really what you want to ask. I'm guessing you want to ask what's causing it and what to do about it. In other words, if you go to the doctor, you would want to know what questions to ask.

What kind of abortion did you have? Are your periods at all unusual? Do you bleed every time you have intercourse, or just sometimes? Do you make any attempt to avoid your fertile times?

Having intercourse causes physical movement of internal organs, and also affects your hormones. The first thing that comes to mind is that you may have a slight internal injury, and the intercourse causes the blood to be released. Is there a possibility you might be pregnant? How long has this been going on? What I'm thinking here is the possibility you might have a tubal pregnancy. A tubal pregnancy becomes more likely after a surgical abortion, because this causes scar tissue to form, and it may only partly cover the opening to the Fallopian tube, so that sperm can get in, but the larger zygote cannot get out. There may be other possibilities.

Since it isn't normal to have bleeding because of intercourse in an erratic way like that, I recommend you see a doctor. Don't go to the person who supplied the abortion or to any of his colleagues. Find someone else. I would make it a point to see one in the next day or two. If the pain or bleeding increase substantially, it needs to be investigated right away. You may be able to get in to see one quickly if you find an organization in your area that helps pregnant women. You can find one by going to this web site:

http://www.pregnancycenters.org/

Tell your new doctor about your abortion, and anything else unusual that happened.

One other thing: if you are not married, you should not be having sex. You already risked your health and life once, and you could wind up right where you were before your abortion, with the same problems. "Protection" doesn't work. Neither do pulling out or most forms of birth control. They only delay the inevitable.

I don't know what else to tell you. Please let me know what you find out, and feel free to discuss things further. Please stay safe!