Shared by: Claudine
Age: 25
Did you have a pregnancy test? No
How was the pregnancy ended? Vitamin C, Dong Quai, parsley (tea and inserts)
Is there anything that clued you in that the herbs might be working before bleeding started? cramping from the Dong Quai
Is this your first pregnancy? no
Were you using birth control? yes
Do you know how/why it failed? I relied on my temperature being an accurate predictor of ovulation, as it had been for months. Unfortunately, I was lazy and did not cross-check my waking temp with my cervical fluid. My cycle was screwed up due to stress, and I had ovulated later than I thought.
Did you experience any symptoms or signs of pregnancy? Spotting (from implantation bleeding) and breasts swelling
Side effects.
Any positive effects? The parsley tea was very soothing; I have no idea if it affected the outcome.
How did being pregnant make you feel physically? no noticeable effects, except possibly fatigue but that could have been from a lot of different factors.
If the herbs caused miscarriage -- how did you feel just before bleeding began? And when bleeding started - How was the bleeding, cramping, etc?
On the afternoon of August 21, I was out running errands for work when I felt a sudden, extremely sharp pain in my abdomen. When I was able to get to a bathroom and check (about ½ hour later), I found that bleeding had begun. Except for heavier cramping than usual and a few more bits of fibrous tissue (normal in any period; these were no larger than in a regular period, there were just more of them), my bleeding appeared fairly normal; a bit heavier than usual, especially at the beginning. Bleeding ended on August 26.
Your Story
On the evening of Aug 16, as soon as I realized that my spotting was not the beginning of my period (I never spot mid-cycle), I started taking 500 mg of Vitamin C every hour. I kept track of my doses using a tally sheet, which helped me remember whether I‘d missed an hour (e.g., if I got up at 8:30 and had four marks on my tally sheet, I knew I had taken 500 mg at 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30). Each day, I took 8-11 grams of Vitamin C. On the last two days I took the Vitamin C, I upped the dosage, alternating 1000 mg and 500 mg doses every other hour. The physical side effects of doing this were that I felt like I‘d taken too much cold medicine.
Beginning in the morning of Aug 18, I took two Dong Quai capsules every four hours. On August 20, I began taking 3-4 Dong Quai capsules every four hours. I kept track of my Dong Quai doses on my tally sheet, also.
Throughout the experience, I brewed and drank pots of parsley tea. Fresh parsley tea is just great; I went through about 4 or 5 bunches of parsley from the grocery store. (Note: Do not brew the stems of the parsley in the tea; it will taste bitter!) Drinking tea helped me soothe my nerves during the experience. I don‘t know if it helped with terminating the pregnancy, but I am confident that if I had not been pregnant, it would have brought on my period, because of the following: On Aug 17, the second day I was using the herbs, I did see a very tiny amount of blood in my cervical fluid (which was far more than I‘d seen since the spotting ended on the morning of Aug 15). I believe this was the last of the implantation bleeding that had remained in my uterus, and that the parsley helped to flush it out.
On Aug 20 and Aug 21, I also put in a parsley vaginal insert, twice a day. I believe this helped loosen the cervix enough to encourage bleeding when it did start.
Throughout the experience, I tried visualizing getting my period and mentally prepared myself for what I would do to terminate the pregnancy if the herbs did not work. I also set a deadline for myself to call a doctor on a certain date if I had not begun bleeding. I also asked that the spirit of life depart this time but return again when I would be able to nourish it properly. I rested a lot and tried to take good care of my body so that I would be strong for the rigorous course of herbal treatment I was putting it through.
I experienced some cramping throughout the day on Aug 20, but I was disappointed every time I checked to see if I had begun bleeding. At this point, I increased the doses of Vitamin C and Dong Quai. The cramping became steadily harder each time it occurred. Then, as I wrote above, on the afternoon of August 21, I was out running errands for work when I felt a sudden, extremely sharp pain in my abdomen. When I was able to get to a bathroom and check (about ½ hour later), I found that bleeding had begun. Except for heavier cramping than usual and a few more bits of fibrous tissue (normal in any period; these were no larger than in a regular period, there were just more of them), my bleeding appeared fairly normal; a bit heavier than usual, especially at the beginning.
I took the Dong Quai for one more day after bleeding had begun, because I wanted to make sure it wouldn‘t stop, but I did not continue after that for fear of hemorrhaging. Bleeding ended on August 26. I felt a bit sore from all the cramping, but other than that, life returned to normal.
I was a bit nervous that I had had an incomplete miscarriage because I did not pass any sort of sac or large chunk of tissue, but my period came again the following month, completely normal, and my cycle has been regular.
The only thing I would have done differently would be to put more faith in the herbs‘ abilities. I tried to spare myself the anxiety over what I would do if they didn‘t work by mentally mapping out my alternate plan, but I didn‘t do this for several days. Other than that, I would have kept everything the same, including increasing my doses - I felt my body was almost responding at the original levels, but needed an extra push. I feel the extra Dong Quai I took at the end was a main factor in bringing on bleeding.
Sister Zeus, thank you for making the information on your site available. I hope I will never have to use it again, but I am glad I had it when I needed it.
Submitted: Sept 29, 2001
Weight: 150
Height: 5’11"
Do you smoke tobacco? occasionally
If no pregnancy test was taken - do you think you were pregnant? How strongly do you feel this way? I am 99.9% certain I was pregnant. I experienced spotting slightly before my period was due, which disappeared completely. The only other time in my life this ever happened, I was pregnant. Also, about 1 week after I had unprotected sex, my breasts blew up like balloons overnight again, the only other time I had this kind of physical symptom, I was pregnant.
Were you successful in using the herbs? yes
Would you try herbs again, or recommend them to a friend in the same situation? yes, if she were otherwise in good health
What kind/method of birth control/contraception were you using? Fertility Awareness Method
How did the herbs affect you? The massive amounts of Vitamin C made me feel like I was functioning at about half capacity, the way you feel when you take a strong cold medication. It took me twice as long to function at work, and I kept having to do things over that I did wrong the first time. The dong quai caused cramping, which I welcomed because that told me it was working.
I have been pregnant once before, which ended in clinical surgical abortion. I had tried using Vitamin C and Dong Quai to end that pregnancy also, but I started taking the herbs too late - at 6 weeks, I couldn’t keep down enough Vitamin C for it to work (I would throw up after about 2,000 mg in four hours). The symptoms from that pregnancy (implantation bleeding a few days after intercourse and tremendous breast swelling) were what led me to realize I was pregnant this time. I didn’t want to spend the money on a pregnancy test, which might not have given me an accurate result since my period wasn‘t quite due yet. So I started my course of treatment. I knew that if I wasn‘t pregnant, bleeding would begin soon anyway; if I was, hopefully the herbs would bring on menstruation.
