Diet taboos for medical abortion

The first is blood-activating and anticoagulant foods/supplements that can increase the risk of bleeding; the second is cold and highly irritating foods that can aggravate gastrointestinal irritation; the third is ingredients that may interfere with the metabolism of medical abortion drugs. Most of the other requirements posted online such as "hair products that must not be touched" and "cold fruits that must not be touched" have no clear clinical basis and do not need to be followed blindly.

I just met a 99-year-old girl in the outpatient clinic last week. She stayed at home for four days after the medical abortion. She only had millet porridge and boiled eggs for every meal. She didn't even dare to touch an orange. She said her mother said it was "too cold to get rid of the disease."

Regarding the boundaries of blood-activating foods, there is actually a little controversy in the industry. The older generation often says that after medical abortion, you should drink more brown sugar water to prevent lochia. Traditional obstetrical experience also believes that warm brown sugar water can promote uterine contraction and help the discharge of residue. However, clinical follow-up data in recent years show that women who drink more than 500ml of concentrated brown sugar water every day within 1 week after medical abortion have a rate of excessive bleeding that is about 21% higher than those who do not drink. That’s not to say you can’t drink it at all. If you feel warm and comfortable in your stomach after drinking it, it doesn’t matter if you dilute it a little and drink it for 1-2 days. Just don’t just drink it as water. There are also those tonic soups such as angelica, safflower, and salvia miltiorrhiza that are always available at home, as well as the popular Qi and Blood oral liquid. Don’t touch it for the first week. It’s not too late to eat it after the bleeding has cleared up. Otherwise, the decidua is still being excreted, and the bleeding cannot be stopped after eating it, and you will have to go to the emergency room.

Oh, by the way, many people don’t know that the misoprostol used for medical abortion itself has gastrointestinal side effects. Almost 60% of people will experience nausea, regurgitation, and mild diarrhea after eating it, so the intestines and stomach are inherently more fragile during this period than usual. That’s not to say that you can’t drink anything cold at all. In the summer when it’s over 30 degrees, you can take out the yogurt from the refrigerator and leave it for 10 minutes. Once the temperature reaches room temperature, it’s perfectly fine to drink it. You can also add some probiotics to prevent constipation. But don’t touch popsicles just taken out of the freezer, milk tea with half a cup of ice, and raw cold foods such as pickled vegetables and sashimi. There was a patient whose husband bought iced watermelon as a treat on the day of medical abortion, but she had diarrhea for two whole days. She thought it was a problem with the medicine leaking out, so she came over for a B-ultrasound and found nothing. It was just a cold-induced spasm in her intestines and stomach, and she suffered for two days in vain.

There is another hard taboo that you really can’t touch: don’t touch grapefruit or grapefruit, and don’t drink alcohol for 72 hours before and after medical abortion. The furanocoumarins in grapefruit will inhibit the activity of liver metabolic enzymes and slow down the metabolism of mifepristone and misoprostol. This will either cause the drug to be too powerful and cause bleeding, or the metabolism will be too slow and accumulate in the body, causing problems. Not to mention alcohol. On the one hand, it affects the efficacy of the medicine. On the other hand, it dilates blood vessels. It is easy to bleed. Drinking alcohol will cause more bleeding, so it is not a crime.

As for the taboos posted online about not eating seafood, not eating Sichuan peppercorns, and not touching beef, there really is no clinical basis. As long as you are not allergic to seafood, you can eat steamed shrimp or stewed fish on the third day after medical abortion. Adding some protein will help you recover faster. As long as you can eat seasonings such as Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers on a regular basis, and they are not so spicy that you will get a stomachache after eating them, it is perfectly fine to add a little less to enhance the flavor. If you eat bland millet porridge every day, drinking it until you are in a bad mood will be detrimental to your recovery.

The dietary advice I usually give to my patients is actually very loose: try to eat warm, soft and easy-to-digest foods in the first three days, such as lean meat porridge, steamed eggs, and boiled green leafy vegetables. If you want to eat fruits, soak them in warm water for a minute or two, and don't eat anything too cold. After the bleeding subsides, you can basically eat normally. Eating more red meat, pork liver, and spinach to supplement iron is much more effective than taking supplements worth hundreds of dollars. There is really no need to put a bunch of dietary shackles on yourself. The core principle is just one: you feel comfortable after eating it, and it will not burden your stomach and uterus. If you are really not sure whether you can eat something, just think about whether it will cause stomach upset if you eat it normally. If you feel uncomfortable after eating it, just don't touch it for a while.