********* treatment - refund request

Marie stopes, I request an immediate refund after my experience at the center in Walmer, Port Elizabeth last week. Furthermore, I will publish a statement and review to hopefully prevent girls and women in the future from going there and possibly endangering their lives.

I went to the center last week Wednesday after I had two positive pregnancy tests at home. The nurse (!) did an ultrasound scan (not a trans******l one) and confirmed that I was pregnant and that she saw a (very small) pregnancy in the uterus. I came there for a safe ********! She then let me take the first pill (mifepristone) in front of her to terminate the pregnancy and gave me four misoprostol pills for me to take at home on the next day. If ,after having cramps I wasn’t bleeding until 24 hours after taking the pills, she told me I would have to come back to the center. The exact case happened. I didn’t bleed at all after taking the pills which is already very weird because I know the procedure and because I know that it has to bleed and come out, hence I immediately concluded that something was going terribly wrong and had a bad feeling. On the same day I went to the emergency unit of a private hospital in PE, luckily. They then did an ultrasound and blood tests and told me that the uterus was clearly empty, which led me thinking that it could be an ectopic pregnancy. I had obviously trusted the nurse (Marie stopes) though who told me that the fetus was in the uterus!! The hospital sent me home and told me to come back two days later for another blood test to see if the hccG went up in my blood which means the pregnancy would still be growing, somewhere. I also went back to the Marie Stopes center the day after (this was now 48 hours after taking the mifoprostil pills). I told the nurse what happened and she said that everything is still fine and that the pregnancy clumps and pieces would have probably moved closer to the exit of my womb. I am not a medical professional but this sounded illogical and weird to me already. She did another scan and told me that the uterus was now empty and that that was a good sign. I then also asked her if she checked my tubes and she said yes, she had checked them. She told me to come back in 4 (!) days!!

Since I didn’t have any trust in Marie Stopes anymore and also started to feel unwell (abdominal and back pain), I went back to the emergency unit and they eventually confirmed that my hccG in my blood was increasing which meant the pregnancy was still growing. They immediately referred me to a Gynecologist which I am so grateful for. To cut a long story short, the gynecologist did an ultrasound and immediately saw that it was an ectopic pregnancy in one of my tubes and said that I would have to get surgery on the same day. He said that he would try to save the tube but he can’t promise it (for anyone reading this do research on ectopic pregnancy and the possible complications of it). He also informed me that not doing anything in this case as in not getting a surgery would have led do internal bleeding, the rupture of my tube and in the worst case death.

I got the surgery and luckily everything went well and I am recovering now.

I am not just sending this email to complain because I am obviously very mad but also because I really do want other people to not go through the same experience and be at risk because they might not want to go to a private hospital or gynecologist due to financial reasons. Marie Stopes is literally known for safe ********s and ensuring a safe environment for women, however they,quite frankly, do the opposite. I risked my life by going to that center, received the most ********* and unprofessional medical care and information and on top of that paid R2200 as a student only for a false scan and wrong information about my pregnancy (basically a lie to make me pay because there was never a pregnancy in my uterus) and the ******** pills. R2200 for that, no post-******** care or check ups involved, nothing.

I am truly so disappointed and thank myself and god for me listening to my body and for questioning information and advise that didn’t make sense to me. Some girls might not do that though because of stigma, fear and financial reasons. Marie Stopes has proven to me to be highly unprofessional, ********* and an institution that just wants to take your money. Maybe I should have known better and not gone there in the first place but I saw recommendations and I trusted it. I would advise no woman/girl to ever go there. It’s not safe nor trustworthy.

I request an immediate refund because clearly there was no need for the pills. What Marie Stopes did was highly ********* and I wish no girl to got through the same.