Diet taboos after medical abortion

There are only four types of foods that really need to be strictly avoided after medical abortion - iced drinks and iced foods at around 0°C, medicinal ingredients with strong blood-activating effects, extremely stimulating foods that are heavy in oil, spicy and sugar, and raw meat/raw seafood/soft-boiled eggs that are not fully cooked. The rest of the "no room temperature fruits, no seasonings, no seafood" spread online are mostly rumors, and there is absolutely no need to blindly avoid food.

A while ago, I accompanied my little sister who had just had a medical abortion for a review. She complained to the doctor that she had not dared to touch grapes at room temperature for the past half month, and drank millet porridge that was so hot that it burned her mouth. As a result, she became constipated and had to squat in the toilet for half an hour. There was blood when she wiped it. She thought it was not drained clean, and she almost cried. Director Zhang of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology who received the patient laughed at the time and said that this kind of misunderstanding was seen too often.

There are actually two opinions on the taboo of "raw and cold". The taboo of "raw and cold" in traditional Chinese medicine refers to things that are very cold in nature and taste, such as ice cream and iced milk tea just taken out of the freezer, as well as extremely cold raw pickled crabs and chicory. It does not mean that apples and strawberries that have been left at room temperature for two or three hours cannot be touched. If you have a good gastrointestinal condition and don’t have diarrhea at all, you can eat fruits at room temperature. Western medicine is more straightforward. As long as the food is clean and hygienic and there is no discomfort when eating it, there is no such taboo as "raw or cold". The core logic of both sides is actually the same: don't let the stomach suffer. After all, hormone levels suddenly drop after medical abortion, and gastrointestinal motility is inherently slow. If you have a weak stomach, drink iced milk tea, and have diarrhea for two or three days, and the abdominal pressure will remain high. It is indeed easy to cause uterine pain and affect recovery. But if you dare to chew popsicles in winter, what's the problem with eating a room temperature orange?

I met a girl before. After medical abortion, her mother made her stewing angelica, longan, black chicken soup every day, and added donkey hide gelatin. As a result, the bleeding almost stopped on the seventh day after the operation, but suddenly there was a lot of bright red blood on the tenth day. She came for a B-ultrasound, but there was no residue. It was just that the endometrial wound had not healed yet, and the blood was washed away by the blood-activating things, and the bleeding started again. The conclusions of Chinese and Western medicine are also very consistent, but the explanation system is different: Traditional Chinese medicine generally recommends not to use large doses of blood-activating herbs, such as angelica, safflower, donkey-hide gelatin, longan, etc., until the lochia has been completely eliminated (that is, the bleeding has completely stopped, usually 7-14 days after surgery) ； According to Western medicine, these ingredients will dilate peripheral blood vessels and increase the amount of bleeding. The wounds that have not yet healed will bleed again. As for the fungus and pork liver that you usually eat, they have very little effect on promoting blood circulation, so you don’t have to worry at all. You can eat them when you need to, and they can also supplement iron.

There is also a girl with a big heart. On the third day after the medical abortion, she went to eat spicy butter hot pot with her friends and drank iced Coke. That night, she suffered from abdominal pain and diarrhea, which lasted the whole night. The pain in her lower abdomen, which had disappeared in three days, actually lasted for almost a week. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t touch spicy food at all. If you usually eat spicy food all the time and have no reaction at all when eating mild spicy food, it’s okay to take a few bites less. But if you can’t eat spicy food at ordinary times, or you have abdominal pain just two days before the surgery, don’t join in the fun. We also don’t recommend the high-fat and high-sugar diet of braised pork and cream cakes. During this period, the digestive function is weak. Eating too much oil and too sweet can easily lead to acid reflux and bloating. If you have fungal vaginitis, eating too much sugar can easily relapse, which is not worth the loss.

As for undercooked food, it is a minefield that is controversial in both Chinese and Western medicine: sashimi, half-cooked steak, soft-boiled eggs, unwashed raw salad, etc., may be fine if you eat them on a regular basis, but your immunity will temporarily decrease after medical abortion, and the risk of bacteria and parasites in these foods is higher. If you eat it and you will suffer from acute gastroenteritis, vomiting and diarrhea, it will definitely affect your recovery, so just endure it during this period, and it is not too late to eat it again after your body recovers. As for fully cooked shrimps, fish, and even crabs, many people say that seafood cannot be eaten. In fact, it is completely a rumor. As long as you are not allergic to seafood and cook it thoroughly, these are high-quality proteins and are much more nutritious than drinking plain porridge for ten days.

I have seen too many girls who made themselves feel like they were in confinement after medical abortion. They didn’t dare to eat this or touch that. They didn’t even dare to put soy sauce on them because they said it would leave scars. It was really unnecessary. To put it simply, the core principles are: clean, easy to digest, and comfortable to eat. As long as you avoid the four categories mentioned above and eat whatever else you want, you will be in a good mood and recover faster. If you are really unsure, ask your attending doctor before eating. It is much more reliable than the messy health posts you read.