Am I still pregnant? Or chemical?

[justpeachy1234]

Last week I had light bleeding which I thought was my period starting. It was only when wiping for a few days. (Weds/ thurs)

On Monday I tested positive on a CB early digital 🥳

By Tuesday I was spotting again! Only light again, lasted less than 24 hours.
In my last pregnancy I had no bleeding so I don't have experience of any of this.

Wednesday I got '1-2 weeks pregnant'
I have done a few cheapies since and they seem light for around 20DPO, pic attached. The dates can't be that wrong because I track ovulation and sex.

Am I still pregnant? Should I test again? Will tests still show positive if Iv had a chemical?
Should I ask my doctor to do bloods? When will my period come if I have miscarried?

I hope they scan you soon.

Im home now.

They said my HGC levels were 300. She checked my cervix and said it was closed which indicates pregnancy.

I have to go back on Wednesday for more bloods. She said if it goes up then they will scan again.

I'm glad I went to A&E instead of waiting as it would just be very drawn out!

So far, so good.
This must be agonising for you. I hope your hCG levels go up on Wednesday.

Did they scan you?

No, they said they want more bloods after 48 hours first. Then they will do a scan.

I just want it sorted now. It's all the unknowns that's really stressful

Hi everyone,

Iv got my second bloods tomorrow and I'm expecting an ectopic to be confirmed.

Does anyone know how the treatment plan is decided?

Iv seen some people get an injection. Some have operations. It is dependent on size of embryo, location or something?

Thanks

Sorry I don't have any advice but am wishing you all the best for tomorrow

Good luck for your appointment tomorrow.

If your levels haven't risen disproportionately and they can't see anything on your scan, some places do expectant management if deemed low risk, as your body can sometimes absorb it without needing any treatment. Otherwise the injection may well be an option if your levels are low, or if not surgery. Even if you do have surgery there have been lots of positive stories on here of women having healthy pregnancies soon afterwards.

Did you say you had a private scan previously? Could they see an ectopic on there or was it just an absence of a pregnancy in the womb? Sometimes if it's an early miscarriage it can't be seen on the scan and it could be your body has already dealt with it.

So Sorry you're going through all of this though & hope tomorrow goes as well as it can considering.

@Lilac90

Sorry if this sounds silly but what would disproportionately look like?
They said my levels were 300 on Monday. I read they go up but slowly with ectopic.

The private scan said pregnancy of unknown location. He said he checked my uterus and tubes and couldn't see anything. He said from 4 weeks you should see a sack or something.

Can you miscarry without heavy bleeding? Iv only had light bleeding, just stained tissue when I wiped.
When I had a miscarriage before they could still see the empty sack which I had an operation to remove it.

This situation is so confusing

Well done @justpeachy1234 for going to a&e and good luck for your bloods tomorrow.

If your HCG comes back under 1000 (likely if it was at 300 on Monday?) they might be reluctant to scan. My GP kept saying they wouldn't be able to see anything if HCG is under 1000. Hopefully they will offer you a scan, but thought I'd mention so you can be prepared for that in case they say the same to you. (I was eventually scanned with HCG at about 600 after going to a&e, but only 3 days after my initial trip to a&e. I needed surgery the same day).

If your HCG has gone down but only marginally, it's work asking for another blood test on Friday as your HCG with an ectopic can fluctuate. Mine went up and down a few times.

Hope you won't need surgery, fingers crossed it's not even ectopic, but if you do the recovery is quick, it's not particularly painful after xx

@justpeachy1234 sorry cross posted. I think the tricky thing with ectopics is that they're all quite different. I needed surgery with HCG at 600, but I've heard of people with much higher hcg not having surgery. There's a lot of waiting around and repeated blood tests to see how things play out, I know it's extremely worrying. Will keep my fingers crossed for you.

@Babynamechange111

Thanks for the information, it's interesting to try and understand. I feel like I'm learning so much.

So if my levels go up from 300 to 450 say, but it's still too low to scan, what do they think is happening? Ectopic but not an emergency?

If it was a miscarriage it should go down?
If it's viable it would double?

It seems like this weird middle ground 😩

@justpeachy1234 hmm mine were going up and down and up again, but in v small increments. My GP thought most likely a miscarriage, but I just had this feeling it was ectopic. The drs at the hospital were quite cagey about saying what they thought was happening. However, when I did finally see a sonographer she said straight away before she even scanned me that my bloods were classic for ectopic.

Sorry that doesn't help you much... Yeah my guess would be that they would consider it to be an ectopic, but not an emergency.

I think just keep asking questions? Given you've already had a private scan that showed a PUL, I wonder if they might be more inclined to scan again/treat it as an ectopic?

Have you done any more pregnancy tests at home since your last blood test?

No I haven't done anymore tests.

Weirdly I feel loads better. Sunday/ Monday/ Tuesday I felt really really bloated, cramps, aching, heavy boobs, very emotional etc. but today I feel really good. I feel light and 'normal'!

@justpeachy1234 that's a good sign! Hopefully your body is sorting it out and you won't need any treatment. Fwiw, I felt progressively worse with the ectopic - not loads of pain in my side except for a mild burning sensation - but weirdly breathless, stabbing pains in the bum 😬 just a sense of something being wrong.

I wondered if a test would give you a heads up on what the blood test results might be?

When I had a pregnancy of unknown location it says on the leaflet that it could be 1 of 3 things. A miscarriage that has already passed so can't be seen on a scan (particularly if you were really early), a very early new pregnancy (which does sound unlikely if you know you must be at least 6 weeks) or an ectopic.

I think without knowing your hcg levels today it's really hard to speculate. Mine rose slightly (57 to 90) but then dropped again so they said it was most likely an early miscarriage (assuming that's what people call a chemical). I must not have got a negative test until around 7 weeks though so it can take a little while for your hcg to drop to non pregnant levels. I didn't require any treatment other than monitoring.

I hope today goes well for you, waiting is always the worst.

@Babynamechange111

I just did enough test, not FMU (bottom) it looks fairly similar 🤷🏻‍♀️ today I'm CD47!
I wonder what my bloods will show!

@Lilac90 did you have a heavy bleed? Did they ever find any evidence of a pregnancy?

I struggle to see understand how Iv miscarried without bleeding/ passing anything. Can a pregnancy just dissolve?

My appointment is at 12 so il see what my bloods say. Hopefully il get some answers today.

Bit of a more practical question, did you take time off work? I'm struggling atm to know what to do as I don't actually know what's happened!?

I had what I thought was a period which was a standard bleed for 4/5 days. It stopped but 2 days later I started spotting and light bleeding which continued on and off for 7-10 days. It was during this time I found out I was pregnant so I realised it wasn't a period after all and must have been the start of the miscarriage process.

Your tests look pretty light so that may be a good sign that they're not rising slowly like an ectopic does, although of course hard to say for sure until you get your blood test back. Also the fact they couldn't see an ectopic on your private scan, although obviously would be good if they'd scan you at the EPU too for peace of mind. At mine they also said they couldn't see anything in my tubes or any swelling/bleeding there to indicate an ectopic, which is why they put it down to an early miscarriage.

I still got a very very faint line on a pregnancy test even when my levels had dropped to 13, so a positive still doesn't necessarily mean your levels are high.

I really struggled at work, luckily I can work from home so I just said I wasn't feeling well and wfh instead of the office until I knew it was resolved.

I think you can get signed off if you need to though without work needing to know the exact reason if you don't want them to know about your pregnancy.

@justpeachy1234 when I had a early loss at 5w I just bled for 2/3 days like a normal period wasn’t heavy bleeding or passing anything as i was early.
hope you get your answers today good luck

Hi OP
I just wanted to send some love after reading this thread 🫶
How stressful! Wishing all the very best.

@justpeachy1234 what’s weird to me is how have all your test been so fain if your hcg was 300. That should be a dye stealer.

@justpeachy1234 yeah the tests look exactly the same to me...they're not the most accurate I guess. How long does it take to get the blood test results back?

I took around three weeks off. I took a few days off before surgery, when I was still waiting for test results etc. I was going to be on shift with two middle aged men. Two very nice men, but I didn't fancy getting a phone call with test results etc and then going back into the room with them. Then I had two weeks off for the surgery and recovery. I think it's fine to take time off, it's a really stressful situation to be in and emotionally a lot to process.

@emmatcc1 my tests looked very similar to this when my hcg was 500-600 with my ectopic.