How do I know the abortion happened?

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Most people can feel that the pregnancy has ended because the symptoms of pregnancy (eg. nausea, fatigue, mood changes) disappear within a few hours or days.

Sometimes a pregnancy sac or embryo is seen among blood clots, though in earlier pregnancies it may not be visible. Even if it seems the abortion was successful, it is recommended to confirm this using one of the methods below.

There are several ways to confirm the abortion:

  • Urine pregnancy test. Once 4 weeks have passed after using the pills, a urine pregnancy test can be used to confirm that the abortion was successful. A urine pregnancy test can give a false positive result until at least 4 weeks after using the pills because the pregnancy hormones are still in the body. If there is a positive pregnancy test after 4 weeks, the test can be repeated a few days later, or another method can be used to confirm the abortion.
  • Ultrasound – Although an ultrasound can confirm if the abortion was successful immediately after the abortion, if there are no signs of complications it is recommended to wait 7-10 days before having a scan. Abortion with pills is a process that can last for several weeks before the uterus is completely empty. There is no need for medical attention if there are no signs of complications. An early ultrasound may lead to advice to have completely unnecessary vacuum aspiration or curettage if pregnancy tissues or clots are present in the uterus, especially in countries where doctors are not trained on the newest post-abortion (miscarriage) care recommendations.
  • Blood pregnancy test – two consecutive quantitative beta hCG blood tests can be done 2-4 days apart. These tests can be done immediately after abortion in most medical facilities that do blood testing. It is important to get the kind of test that gives a number result, rather than just positive or negative. If the result of the second test is a lower number, it means the level of the hormone is dropping, because pregnancy was ended. This method can be relied on if the pregnancy was less than 10 weeks when the pills were used, because after about 10 weeks of pregnancy the hormone levels begin to drop even if the pregnancy is continuing.