Many women insert the misoprostol at home and pass the tissue later. A woman considering medical abortion will need to be prepared for this possibility. The clinic staff can answer questions about what to expect. The most common side effects of medical abortion are caused by misoprostol, the medication taken after the methotrexate or mifepristone. The amount of bleeding that a woman has will be greater with medical abortion than with surgical abortion.
Most women have cramps for several hours, and many pass blood clots as they are aborting.
In some cases, the blood clots will be larger than the embryo and other tissue from the pregnancy which will also be passed, and the embryo will probably not be seen among the blood clots. For example, at 49 days LMP, the size of the embryo will be about one-fifth of an inch. In an earlier pregnancy, it might be much smaller than that. Cramps and bleeding usually begin to ease after the embryonic tissue has been passed, but bleeding may last for one to two weeks after medical abortion. Some women report that their first regular menstrual period after a medical abortion is heavier, or longer, or in some other way different from normal for them.