Readers Respond: Choosing Medical Management for Miscarriage

Medical management of miscarriage, such as the use of Cytotec to induce the miscarriage bleeding, can be an option for dealing with a missed miscarriage or incomplete miscarriage without surgery such as a D&C. If you have had a miscarriage that was treated medically, please share your thoughts on the experience. Why did you choose medical management, what was the experience like, and are you satisfied with your choice when looking back?

Medical management miscarriage

I went for my 12 week scan to find that my foetus had stopped developing at 8 wks. I opted for medical management as surgery scared me. I was told there would be period like pain and cramping. I had my first pill on the thursday and was admitted in to hospital on the sat. I had had light spotting. After the 2 pesseries and the first tablet I experienced period pain and cramping, but after that I went into what I would describe as full labor. I have had 2 previous children so know what labor is. This is not what I was expecting. I had 3 hours of pain and vomiting, codiene, pethidine and morphine, after 3 hours the pain began to ease and I passed the foetus with quite a lot of blood. I was allowed home 2 hours later and have no after care or councilling. I found the whole experience very traumatic and if I was unfortunate to have to go through it again I think I would go for surgery.

—Guest megan

Missed miscarriage

I found out at 17 weeks my baby had died 4 weeks earlier. I chose medical management as there was less risk. I was given an initial tablet 48hrs before I was due to come into hospital but still hadn't started bleeding before I went in - apparently approx half women do, half don't. When I checked into hospital I was given the medication to bring on the miscarriage. I was asked to use a bedpan each time I used the toilet so the nurse could judge when I'd passed all the pregnancy. Nothing happened until the second dose of tablets 3 hours later. I became very shivery and felt ill but this quickly passed once I started bleeding. I was regularly offered pain relief but did not need much until the end when I was passing the placenta - I was in a lot of pain just before this came through. I was offered diamorphine but in the end did not take it. Once the placenta had passed the pain went immediately. The nurse told me that I'd had a very normal experience. Huge amounts of pain are not normal.

—Guest Beth

Miscarriage and Misoprostol

I had a miscarriage at about 8 weeks. I decided to take Misoprostol over D&C because of the low risks involved. After taking the pills I experienced cramping and bleding. After 4 hours, with pain meds, I experienced severe and unbearable cramping, which lasted about an hour. Later on I started bleeding. Unfortunately, not everything was out of my system so I had to repeat the treatment. The 2nd time was not bad at all. I was able to sleep the entire night and the next morning I started bleeding.

—Guest Isa01

Cytotec

I had a miscarriage and chose to use Cytotec over a D&C. I chose this option because my doctor told me there were less risks and I would only experience bleeding and heavy cramping. She prescribed pain meds for me but told me I probably wouldn't even need them. About an hour after using the Cytotec, I began having bleeding and cramping. The cramping quickly became severe to the point that I was doubled over in pain and throwing up. I tried to take the pain meds but couldn't hold them down. I hurt so bad that I was screaming and crying. I finally held down enough pain meds to make me sleepy but I could still feel the pain. After several hours (it was after hours at this point) I was able to get in touch with another doctor who recommended to take 800 mg of ibuprofen every 8 hours. I thought she was crazy since the Rx pain meds didn't work, but very quickly after taking the ibuprofen I felt better.

—Candi83