Recovery after an abortion is not judged only by how many days have passed. Changes in bleeding and pain should be looked at together with how your body feels. When you consult at Lileap, ask about what to follow after you go home and the criteria for contacting the clinic again. This article is general guidance that leads from preparing to go home, through monitoring your recovery, to a follow-up visit when one is needed.
What should you check first before going home?
Check the medicines to take, precautions during activity, and how to make contact if unusual symptoms occur. The length of recovery varies with the method used and your individual condition, and cannot be set as the same for everyone.
- Medicines and rest: Check how to take prescribed medicines, reduce an overly demanding schedule, and match activity to how you feel.
- Help after anesthesia: If you received anesthesia, ask about limits on driving and whether someone should accompany you, and arrange so that you can get help if you feel sleepy or dizzy.
- Next contact: Ask whether a follow-up visit is needed and, if so, when and for what purpose you would come. If you miss the appointment, discuss a new time.
How should you monitor bleeding and pain?
Bleeding and lower abdominal pain can occur, but it matters whether they are lessening or worsening compared with before. The fact of bleeding alone cannot be taken to establish a complication, and a decrease alone should not be taken to mean that recovery is finished.
Briefly write down how soaked a pad becomes and how often you change it, when the pain started and how it affects daily life, and the medicines you took. At a visit, if you add these changes to an explanation such as "it still hurts," it is easier to describe your recovery. You do not need to delay contact so that the record is perfect.
Which symptoms should not wait until the next appointment?
If pain or bleeding is worsening, or if you have a fever or discharge that differs from usual, contact the facility that performed the surgery right away, even before the day of the appointment. Consultation is also needed when pain and bleeding are not improving.
Additional treatment may be needed because of infection, remaining tissue, or other reasons. Because the cause is difficult to distinguish from symptoms alone, do not determine at home whether the situation is normal.
What is reviewed at the next follow-up visit?
When a follow-up visit is needed, the course of recovery and the need for further evaluation are considered based on the method used and symptoms afterward. Not everyone needs a return visit at the same time or the same tests.
At the visit, please share how bleeding and pain have changed, whether there was a fever or a change in discharge, and whether anything felt uncomfortable while you were taking the medicines. The clinician judges from your condition whether an examination, ultrasound, or other tests are needed. If a test or a return visit has been recommended, ask "what it is meant to check" and "how the next step would change depending on the result."
Preparation and the process of the surgery itself can be reviewed separately in the abortion surgery guide. For directions to the clinic, see Directions.