Telehealth Abortion

• Early Medical Abortion is 93-98% successful
• Chances of haemorrhage is less than 1 in 1000
• Chances of infection is less than 1 in 100
• Chances of having an incomplete abortion is 1 – 4 in 100
• Chances of an ongoing pregnancy is 1 in 200

• Most women will experience moderate to heavy bleeding (93.4% of women in Australian study).
• Most women will experience severe pain / cramps (78.4% of women in Australian study). This can be managed with pain medications that your doctor will prescribe. It is essential that you follow the instructions for the pain medications to effectively reduce the discomfort.
• Despite the above, most women felt that their overall experience was as expected or better than expected (90.3%) and would recommend it to others.

In the unlikely event that you have a haemorrhage (1 in 1000) chance, you need to be within 2 hours drive to the hospital to receive emergency care in timely manner.

• It is advisable to start the medical abortion only if you are extremely certain that you do not wish to keep the pregnancy.
• There is no evidence that Mifepristone causes malformations in the fetus, however, it blocks progesterone receptors in the uterus thus interfering with the requirements of a normal pregnancy. It increases the risk of miscarriage.
• Misoprostol in pregnancy is associated with malformations in the fetus. Please book an appointment so that your doctor can discuss the risks of complications and alternative options with you.

No. Early medical abortion does not impact your chances of falling pregnant in the future.

According to Therapeutic Guidelines, yes it is safe to take it while breastfeeding. Women do not need to “pump and dump” while taking the medication and can continue breastfeeding as normal.

• Here is a comparison of the pros and cons of medical vs surgical abortion
• The Royal Women’s Hospital https://www.thewomens.org.au/health-information/unplanned-pregnancy-information/unplanned-pregnancy-deciding-what-to-do has excellent resources to help with decision making.
• You can book an appointment with one of the doctors. Your doctor is trained in non directive pregnancy counselling and can assist with your decision making in an unbiased way.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Try again on a laptop or desktop after 20mins. The booking site has been glitchy with mobile devices.

2. Try with a different web browser. (Suggest google chrome)

3. Make sure that you’re not behind a firewall from a work laptop/device.

4. Check if sufficient funds are available on your credit or debit card.

5. Do not use auto complete to fill in personal or card details as it may break the interface.

6. Try a different credit or debit card as some cards may flag or block online payments from small businesses.

If the problem persists, please contact admin@telehealthabortion.com.au

If you have successfully completed your booking, you should have received a text message confirmation almost immediately. If you didn’t get a text message confirmation, an error has occurred.

It is required to track the decline of the beta hcg (pregnancy hormone level) to determine if the abortion is successful.

• If the tests were ordered by your regular GP are incomplete, you may be asked to complete the missing tests.
• If your beta hcg (pregnancy hormone level) was taken too many days before your appointment, you may be asked to repeat it. It is important that you do so, as we need to establish a baseline to track the decline of beta hg to determine if the abortion is successful.

Full blood count

• This helps to exclude pre-existing anaemia. It is dangerous to take the medication if you are already significantly anaemic and surgical abortion is the safer alternative.

Beta hcg

• The beta hcg is a pregnancy hormone. We use this to track the successful completion of the abortion.

Blood group and antibodies

• This information is In case you have a haemorrhage and require a blood transfusion at your nearest hospital.

First pass urine PCR for chlamydia and gonorrhoea

• If present, these bacteria reside at the cervix. An open cervix during the abortion will allow any bacteria present to enter the uterus and may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease. We screen for these to make sure if chlamydia or gonorrhoea infection Is present, we can treat it with antibiotics promptly.

• Preferably at > 6 weeks pregnancy. Ultrasounds performed earlier than 6 weeks may not be able to determine the location of the pregnancy and may have to be repeated.
• At least 2 days before your appointment to allow time for results to be ready.
• The blood and urine test should preferably be done on the same day as the ultrasound.

If your doctor has determined that your ultrasound result was unable to identify where the pregnancy is located and confidently exclude an ectopic pregnancy, your doctor will ask you to repeat the ultrasound.

An ultrasound is very Important and non-negotiable in order for us to exclude an ectopic pregnancy. The medications will be ineffective for terminating an ectopic pregnancy. The medications and the ongoing development of an ectopic pregnancy can cause life threatening internal haemorrhage. This is why we insist on the ultrasound.