What Causes Bleeding And Positive Result For Pregnancy After Taking Abortion Pills?

Hallow Dear, It is but natural that you are confused because of positive pregnancy test. Let me explain you step by step. Your wife has taken pills for terminating the pregnancy. I believe they are Mifepristone and Misoprostol. These pills are quite effective and safe abortifacient medicines to terminate pregnancy up to 9 weeks of gestation. Then subsequently she started bleeding meaning there by that the process of abortion had started. However, next day, the bleeding stopped. It could be because of two reasons: 1. The pregnancy has aborted completely and hence the bleeding has stopped. In this process, she might have passed white clot . 2. The medicines have failed. This seems very unlikely as when they fail in terminating the pregnancy, the bleeding does not start at all. 3. In case of incomplete abortion, she would not stop bleeding. So this can be ruled out. The most confusing fact for you is that the pregnancy test done after the bleeding started is still positive. Pregnancy test is based on qualitatively finding out the raised hCG hormone in the body. This hormone increases during pregnancy. When abortion process starts, or even when the baby is non-viable, it requires about a week to ten days for the hCG levels to come down and become undetectable. Hence, even after abortion, the pregnancy test becomes negative after a week or so. So now the dilemma in your mind is how to know whether the pregnancy has been terminated completely or not. Ultrasonography is the best investigation to provide you this information. In fact we always advise our patients to get ultrasonography done after medical termination of pregnancy. Also, it is a good practice to have a follow up visit to the Obstetrician 7 days after the last dose of medicine was taken for terminating the pregnancy. So please report to your Obstetrician. If ultrasonography reveals that she has aborted completely, no issue of worry. Just start reliable contraceptive method lie condom, birth control pills or intrauterine device like CuT. Then you would not be facing such situations in future. If the abortion is not complete, or if the process did not start at all (which is very unlikely as she started bleeding), then get the uterus evacuated surgically. These medicines cause developmental abnormalities in the baby. Hence, in case of failure of these medicines to terminate the pregnancy, the decision of termination should not be reverted to continuation of pregnancy. I hope this clarifies your confusion and dilemma. Dr. Nishikant Shrotri