Medical Treatment for Early Miscarriage

1. What is medical treatment?

You will be given tablets to swallow or to put under your tongue, or pessaries to insert into the vagina.
The drug will stimulate your womb to contract, helping you to pass the pregnancy tissue.
The whole process may take more than one day.
Vaginal bleeding and abdominal pain will precede the passage of pregnancy tissue.
You may expect the amount of vaginal bleeding like a heavy period, and there may be clots.
You may take pain-killers if necessary.
Medical treatment is successful in 85% of women.
You do not need to stay in the hospital.

Side effects of drugs, e.g. nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever, chills, allergic reactions
Failed treatment
Incomplete miscarriage
Heavy bleeding, may need blood transfusion
Pelvic infection

You can save any tissue passed and send it for analysis in the laboratory. This is to confirm it is normal pregnancy tissue.
A follow up appointment should be arranged in 1-2 weeks’ time, when you will be offered an ultrasound examination again to see the response to treatment.
If medical treatment fails, or if the miscarriage has not completed, you can have an option of repeating the medical treatment or having a suction evacuation, provided conditions allow.
If your bleeding is too excessive, or if your pain is too severe, or if there are signs of pelvic infection, it is advisable to have a suction evacuation.