Miscarriage/Pregnancy Loss

Your Advice: M/C with Cytotec

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Re: Your Advice: M/C with Cytotec

  • Stac928Stac928 member
    edited June 2017
    I had a MMC at 12 weeks, our baby measured 8 weeks. No signs or symptoms, no cramping or bleeding. We decided to have medical intervention because our baby had been gone 4 weeks and my body had not yet responded naturally. We decided to try misopristol first to hopefully avoid the possible complications with a D&C. We discovered the MMC on a Monday afternoon at a regular appointment. My doctor advised waiting until the morning to start my doses, so as to hopefully avoid everything happening in the middle of the night. 

    We shared the news with family, stocked up on pads and supplies, bought comfort food and went home. The next morning I began the medication. I had 4 doses spaced out over 12 hours, I decided 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, and 7 pm. She also prescribed Vicodin and advised taking it. So I did, as prescribed, which is unusual for me...I usually avoid pain meds. The doctor had also described for me the situations that required emergent care. She said if I bled through more than one pad an hour for more than three hours or if the pain was not adequately controlled by the prescribed pain meds go to the ER. 

    After my third dose at 3 pm I experienced mild cramping and spotting when using the restroom. After my fourth dose the cramping got worse. Around 10 pm cramping became like contractions. Every 8-10 minutes. Very painful. I decided to take a Vicodin dose a little early, take a shower, and give the Vicodin time to kick in. Still only had light spotting. But contractions became closer together. At 11:30 we headed to the ER (which is 35-40 miles away). Along the way contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart and blindingly painful. I waited too long and the worst of the pain happened in the car. Once at the ER they administered IV pain meds. Shortly thereafter I delivered the fetal tissue. They waited a few hours to see if more would come, if did not. A pelvic exam showed I still had tissue in my cervix and uterus. They admitted me to the hospital to wait until the next morning so my regular OB could do an exam and a decide if a D&C was necessary. She decided it was. Around 9 am I went to the surgical suite for prep. They performed the D&C and I recovered for several hours in the hospital befor discharge. 

    33 days later my period returned. I normally have a 32 day cycle so this was not abnormally long. Following my D&C I had some bleeding 3 days later and some tissue expelled, the doctor was not concerned. The biggest complication for me was the sore throats from intubation. 
    Me: 39  DH: 30
    Married 1/28/17
    TW:
    BFP #1 2/26/17, MMC 5/2/17
    BFP #2 10/10/17, MC 11/4/17
    BFP #3 12/17/17 Birth 8/13/18
    BFP #4 4/21/19 Birth 12/5/2019


  • I know this is a zombie but it was revived not that long ago and I think it's helpful for those trying to decide whether to take Cytotec. I went to my second doctor's appointment today and confirmed MMC. I should be 8w tomorrow, but at our scan last Thursday (7w1d) the doctor saw only an empty sac measuring consistent with about 5w instead. On Saturday I started spotting, Sunday I experienced more bleeding which has continued through today and increased just a bit in flow. On Sunday my pregnancy symptoms also began to subside. 

    At my appt I asked my doctor for options. He said I could choose to let the sac pass naturally and that it is small and should be like a regular period for most of the time. I've read enough on the internet to know this is not always the case and even in early miscarriage some women do experience a lot of pain and bleeding. The doctor also gave me the choice of Cytotec (Misoprostol) or d&c. I am supposed to leave for a trip on Friday so it is my preference to get things over with before then. I weighed for several hours whether to take the Cytotec even after picking it up from the pharmacy. 

    I found this study that I thought others might find helpful, it looks at Misoprostol as a treatment for early pregnancy failure and indicates some factors that might help you determine if you are a "good" candidate for it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1761999/

    For example, Misoprostol was more likely to be successful in women who have never experienced pregnancy past 20 months, women who are Rh negative, and women who are already bleeding and/or have abdominal pain. I actually matched all of these criteria, although my abdominal pain was minimal before taking the Cytotec. I also saw other information out there indicating that this drug has a pretty high risk of uterine rupture when used on women who have had c-sections previous, so if you have, I would stay away from this option. 

    Also, my doctor recommended taking the pills vaginally. I came across many women on the internet who said that wetting the pills a little helped to make the drug work faster. I did this and my pills started to dissolve, so I had to quickly shove them up there. Wetting is not recommended by me. I already had some blood in there so I think it was a redundant step that probably lost me a bit of the dose. 

    I have only just taken the pills about 30 minutes ago. I almost immediately started feeling a weird tingling feeling in my vagina, and I have already had to evacuate my bowels once. I am a little anxious but I am hoping this helps to move the miscarriage along. In some respects it feels good to take some control over the situation. I am at home with my husband and I have told him that I need looking after. I have lots of pads and some powerades, I have also put some towels in the bathroom I plan to stay near so I can lie down in there if that becomes attractive. 

    Wish me luck. 
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  • Just wanted to update that my experience was overall a good one with Misoprostol. I took Advil before taking the drug, then alternated between Advil and Tylenol every few hours. (Make sure you don't take a painkiller that is a blood thinner). The pain was like period pain, maybe a bit more intense. It was best not to move around a lot for me. I bled but it wasn't a scary amount. Definitely clots here and there.

    I managed to sleep pretty well over night, woke up around 3 am and took more Tylenol. This morning I worried I hadn't seen the sac although I knew I could have missed it in the clots. Then around 10:30 am I peed and checked the toilet and there was a big something that I fished out. I honestly did not even feel it come out. I won't get into details but I think it was the placenta and sac. It's hard to tell for sure but I feel pretty confident. Still bleeding some (more watery now) but I feel ok. Actually going to try to go to work for the afternoon. I don't think I need the second dose of the drug. 

    I may make a new thread and link to some of these older threads because for me I had a lot of indecision about whether to take this drug and I read a ton of old threads/blogs/links. So far I am really glad I took it as it hastened the end in a more predictable way.
  • We found out about 2 weeks ago (4/3) that our baby no longer had a heartbeat, and had stopped growing at 9w1d due to hydrops. I chose misoprostol but was so nervous up until the day I took it (4/8). I inserted the pills vaginally at 9:30AM and took 2 aleve. Around 1pm I had slight cramping but not painful. At 3:15 I had a pop, followed by a gush of liquid and few small clots. At 4:32 I passed a large clot. It wasn’t painful, but did need to push a litttle to get it out. The rest of the night and the next day I passed smaller clots, had normal period like bleeding, I didn’t experience very heavy bleeding. It did surprise me at 6:30PM the next day I passed another large clot. After that I had normal to light bleeding and quarter size clots. It has been 1 week today since I took the misoprostol and as of today I don’t have any more red blood, only brown so I imagine it’s just about over. I had a very positive experience with misoprostol, and I’m glad I chose this option for myself. I hope sharing my experience helps someone, I know all I was doing leading up to taking the medication was reading others experiences to try to know what it could possibly be like. A few things I would suggest to have on hand - someone to be home with you 2-3 days if you can so you can take it easy. I used adult diapers the first few days (especially at night time), and overnight pads the next few days. About day 5 I switched to regular pads. A few packs of baby wipes.. I felt like they cleaned much better than toilet paper. A few plastic bags next to the toilet for the wipes/pads/etc. Grab some of your favorite foods, a book or some shows you can relax and watch.. I pretty much stayed in bed the whole day after taking the medication and the next day and it was nice to just rest and distract my mind. 
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