How Abortion Pills Work

It's not easy to make a decision when a woman is considering an abortion. Moreover, if it's something you cannot talk about, things worsen. You flip through pages of various methods of abortion, but consider having an abortion through medication. However, there exist some ifs and buts with consuming an abortion pill. Till date, all you must've known about them is that if you take one within nine weeks of pregnancy, you can end it. But today, find out how they terminate your pregnancy, the way they lead to expel the contents of the uterus, and the warnings a woman needs to take account of, in case she's wanting to take in one. If your pregnancy is confirmed, but you don't want to be pregnant, abortion pills are the best option of terminating the pregnancy, provided you take them within nine weeks. Before we gain an insight the mechanism of abortion pills, it's extremely essential to know what exactly are they, since, it will make it easy to understand their working procedure.

What are Abortion Pills?

Definition: A drug that induces abortion so as to remove a fetus from the uterus is defined as an abortion pill. Abortion pills are referred to as RU-486, where RU stands for Roussel-Uclaf, a French pharmaceutical company where it was first synthesized in the year 1980.

An abortion pill is medically referred to as a combination of two medications, namely, mifepristone and misoprostol, which are prescribed as a 600mg dose by mouth, for the purpose of terminating pregnancy up to 63 days or nine weeks gestation. Mifepristone is sold as Mifeprex in the US, and is capable of terminating pregnancy within four hours of consumption. It is completely safe, but follow-up with a doctor is highly recommended. Note that abortion pills are inadvisable and not advocated in case of medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and ectopic pregnancy. It is highly recommended you get a health-checkup done prior to taking an abortion pill, since it can have adverse effects.

How Do They Work?

The levels of progesterone in the body determine the successful maintenance of pregnancy. However, Mifepristone, when consumed, blocks progesterone levels, thereby, leading to shedding in the uterine lining, and softening of the cervix. With no progesterone in the body, uterus lining breaks down, and hence, for this reason, you need to consume misoprostol, that flushes the uterine lining from the body, thereby, leading it to evacuation. A woman might experience excessive bleeding and cramping post the consumption of mifepristone and misoprostol. Note that, abortion pills are not 100 percent effective, and if in case they fail to work your baby might experience some serious defects on its birth. The only solution to this is to seek help from your gynecologist, and ask for medical abortion, so that not only do you have to give birth to the child, but you don't even need to experience health problems later on.

Words of Advice

• Abortion pills may take more than four hours to work. Hence, stay at home and relax. It really depends on your health conditions, but if you're sure you have no health ailments, just keep calm.
• If medical conditions are severe, you may experience heavy bleeding, more than usual. It may even last for days, leading to infection. Hence, make it a point to visit your doctor before taking in an abortion pill.
• In case of a history of problematic pregnancy, a woman should refrain from consuming abortion pills. It may lead to irregular menses, problems in future pregnancies, and a long-term pelvic inflammatory ailment.

Consume an abortion pill only when you feel it's the right thing to do. I'm in no correct place to adjudicate the pros and cons of such kind of abortion, but there's one thing I can tell, that if abortion pills are consumed without doctor's prescription, you better be ready to experience the side-effects of the pills as well. Still saying, they're not 100 percent effective.