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Get Real! Three Questions After Abortion, One After Miscarriage

yellow_hat asks:

I had a surgical abortion at 10 weeks in February. Besides the abortion, I have never been to an OB-GYN, but because I am getting married in May, I would like to go soon. Since it is likely that I will move and never go back to this particular OB-GYN, is it necessary that I tell her about my abortion? Will she be able to tell during the examination? I’ve read that the cervical opening looks more like a slit than a circle after it has been fully dilated, but I doubt I was fully dilated for the procedure. I don’t want to lie or be tricky, and I know it is best to tell a doctor everything about your medical history, but since this will likely be a one-time visit with a doctor I know very little about (ex. pro-life or pro-choice), I would really prefer to avoid the topic if at all possible. Thanks!

heather replies:

Given when you had your abortion, you’re right: you would not have been anything even remotely close to fully dilated. Your provider would have dilated your cervix to some degree, but only as much as is needed for aspiration, which is nothing close to what is needed for childbirth. At 10 weeks, a fetus is only around an inch in size.

Might you have been dilated enough that a provider could tell you were pregnant before? Eh…probably not.

It really is important that we are as honest as we can be with healthcare provider to assure they can actually do their jobs, but I absolutely hear your concerns. Be aware that overall, OB/GYNs are — I’d say — more likely to be supportive of all reproductive choices rather than less, since you’re dealing with a group of people who are acutely aware of women’s reproductive realities, but it’s still not an invalid concern. No one wants to deal with judgment in their healthcare, and it’s understandable to want to avoid it when you can.

However, I think the best way to avoid that is just to choose good healthcare providers. Ultimately, no patient should ever even know their doctor’s personal feelings in this regard unless you ask. I’ll be frank and say that any OB/GYN who, whatever their personal feelings, cannot respect their patient’s reproductive choices and history, is probably not a good doctor to see in the first place, since that’s going to stand in the way of them doing their best for a lot of women.

You could see a healthcare provider you know is supportive of choice, either by seeing someone at a Planned Parenthood clinic, an independent women’s clinic which also provides abortions (like the one I work at in Washington as well as working here) or by just asking by phone in advance of making an appointment if a provider respects all reproductive choices.

If you don’t have a choice with your OB/GYN, or just are not comfortable putting that you had an abortion on a medical history form, for all intents and purposes, saying you had a miscarriage and then a D&C for it would be an accurate reflection of your physical gynecological history in regard to the abortion without you having to say you willingly terminated a pregnancy.

I know from working at the clinic that even our own clients will occasionally be dishonest about having had procedures done. Now and then, I’ll get a client who will list themselves as having less procedures than we know they have had since we have their charts in our hands. In all honestly, we don’t need to know how many procedures they have had before, or even if they have had any at all to give them sound reproductive healthcare. Had you had a complication with your procedure, that would be likely pertinent information, but otherwise, since legal abortion procedures are medically simple and don’t change your body or your health unless there is a complication, even if you just say nothing at all about this, it’s likely to be okay.

Eves asks,

I had an abortion last winter and until now my period has still not coming back to normal way like before my abortion. After my abortion my period comes every other month or sometimes within two months I still don’t get my period. Is this normal?

Within one to two months after an abortion, your periods should return to normal. An abortion can’t change your regular menstrual cycle in any permanent or long-lasting way as that cycle is controlled by hormonal systems which an abortion can’t influence.

Did you have the recommended follow-up visit two or three weeks after your procedure? If you did, and you were well (and not pregnant) at that point, you can rest assured all is well as far as healing from your abortion goes.

At this point, I’d suggest seeing your reproductive healthcare provider regardless. If your periods have become very irregular, you want to make sure something else isn’t going on, whether that’s being underweight, having bec …

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.