Word: misoprostol
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...Apart from the long-term health effects of RU-486, some doctors still question the drug's safety in the short term. Between 2003 and 2006, seven women - six in the U.S. and one in Canada - died after using mifepristone together with misoprostol, or misoprostol alone. The two drugs are routinely prescribed in combination; the first terminates the pregnancy, while the second causes uterine contractions and expels it. Most of the women died from infection with a dangerous, rare bacterium called Clostridium sordellii, one of the Clostridium species that may normally live in the vagina of healthy, non-pregnant women...
ABORTION OPTION Last year when the FDA approved RU-486, it said the abortion pill should be taken with a second drug, misoprostol, to help expel the fetus. That didn't stop misoprostol's controversy-shy manufacturer, Searle, from warning doctors that the drug could harm pregnant women. Well, it doesn't seem to, according to a review of 200 studies that found misoprostol safe for a number of obstetrical uses, including labor induction and medical abortion...
...make sure the pregnancy is still early enough for the pill to be used safely, which will automatically exclude many women who don't realize they are pregnant until more than 49 days after their last period. Two sets of pills are required--first mifepristone, then, two days later, misoprostol, to trigger contractions and expel the fetal tissue--and that can cause nausea, heavy bleeding and painful cramping. After about 12 days, a woman must return to the doctor to confirm that the abortion was successful...
...option. Not to be confused with the morning-after pill, which doctors believe prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall, mifepristone causes miscarriage by blocking the hormone progesterone, which is needed to maintain a pregnancy. Mifepristone is followed 48 hours later by a second drug, called misoprostol, which forces the uterus to contract; the fetus is expelled several hours later. When taken within 49 days of the last period, the two-drug combination is 95% effective...
...Similar regulations exist in France, which requires four visits over a period of three weeks to a licensed hospital or clinic. Dr. Elizabeth Aubeny, one of the first physicians to test mifepristone, at the Broussais Hospital in Paris, contends there should be more flexibility in allowing women to take misoprostol at home, if they choose. Still, she admits, "there are a lot of women who prefer to stay in the hospital for three hours. They are afraid to be alone, afraid of the bleeding. For many it's psychological; they feel more reassured in a hospital than they...