The first day is a pre-operative appointment. You will meet your Patient Care Guide, a specialist in patient support who will help you understand what to expect both during and after your abortion procedure, and support you through each step in the process. You will then have as much time as you’d like to meet with a nurse and physician. Both will review the procedure process and answer all of your questions. Next, the physician will do a brief ultrasound and administer medications to help ease the process over the next two days.

When you return on the second day, your provider will perform a brief pelvic exam to place Dilapan to help your cervix open slowly overnight. Dilapan is a sterile synthetic polymer similar to laminaria. We will give you medication beforehand, and we take several additional steps to make sure that you are comfortable through the exam. You may have light to mild cramping overnight. We will provide you with several pain medications to keep you comfortable and to minimize the cramping.

When you return on the third day, you will receive IV medications to make you feel very comfortable and relaxed, and to control pain. Once you are comfortable and your cervix is dilated, the physician will complete the abortion procedure, which takes about 15 minutes or less. While the procedure itself is short, the dilation process can take anywhere from one hour to several hours, which you will spend in your private room with your partner, family, or friends. After the procedure, you will return to recover in the privacy and comfort of your own patient room, where your partner, family, or friends can be with you. Typically, the anesthesia medications wear off within two hours and you may return home or to their hotel.

On the third day, a short induction period is followed by evacuation of the uterus under ultrasound guidance. In some cases, depending on medical history, we may be able to perform the procedure in 2 days, but this is not common.