Two chemical pregnancies - anybody recognise these symptoms?

[CaffeinatedKath]

Hi

I've just started looking at mumsnet so am finding all the TLAs very hard to understand. Not quite sure what AF is?

I think we've had two chemical pregnancies in the last few months. I've never had a positive pregnancy test, but the symptoms are that I go dramatically off coffee (which is most unlike me!), get sore tingly breasts, and violent hormonal lows, which are too early for PMT. Last month I cried all morning after doing the washing up, which lets face it is quite an extreme reaction, although I have to admit I've never liked washing up...

The other key symptom is that after about 10 days of these symptoms, I get cramps and then these symptoms disappear and I feel perfectly normal again. A few days later my period comes along as normal. The first month the cramps felt like very very very bad period pain for about 36 hours. The second time, I had some much milder cramping over about 8 hours

I went to see the doctor this morning but he wouldn't even look at the symptoms I'd written down, and told me it would take us a year to conceive and not to come back until February. I'm not the most springlike of chickens so worry about leaving it that long, and I wondered if these symptoms sounded familiar to anybody else. There's quite a bit out there about chemical pregancies and causes, but none of them mention any pain - surely it is too early to have the pain you're supposed to have with miscarriages in later months? Maybe not, maybe we just need to keep trying and hope that we are lucky one month?

Does this sound like anybody else's experience?

Thanks!
Kath

AF = your period

was your period late either time?

maybe it was ovulation pain?

I have had a previous chemical pregnancy and an early miscarriage and your symptoms do sound very similar to what I went through with the CP, although I did have a positive test one week and soon after it disapeared. I didnt even bother going to see a doc about it because I knew that it would probably be shrugged off, like they do,

With the CP I had horrendous pain, I was already off work with swine flu, but if I had been at work I certainly wouldnt have made it through the day.

Hope all is better now for you

how old are you ck? from what gp has said (what a git he sounds) you have been ttc for 7m?

Thanks very much for the comments, especially knowing that you had really bad pain with the CP. I wondered if it was symptomatic of the cause

The thing is, when it ends so early, you can't tell for sure if you really were pregnant or whether you just imagined it

In response to the other questions, Im 37, neither period was late, the first time it was extremely heavy though, not so heavy the second time.

Guess all we can do is hope for better luck next month
Thank you
CK

If you're over 35, the advice is to see your GP if you've been trying unsuccessfully for 6 months. I'd ask to be referred to a gynae - I was.

I've had two months exactly the same as you describe.

We are trying to TTC No 3 and both months I had heavy/aching/tender breasts from 7 or 8dpo (days past ovulation). This went on for five days or so, then bad cramping for one day. The next morning (both months) I woke up feeling normal, breasts back to normal and no more symptoms. The first month AF was late by two days and came on like a flood, not slowly as normal. The second month AF was heavier than normal and very crampy. I honestly think these were both CP even though I never got a BFP.

As I have been pregnant (successfully) with my DD's I recognised the symptoms and knew my boobs were exactly the way they were when I was pg with dd1.

Not all fertilised eggs will develop normally so I'm hoping that those months were 'dud' eggs and that I still can get pg. I am 36 btw and it took 13 months to get pg with dd1 and 4 months for dd2.

Thanks Fanjolina. I have not had any children before, so I am learning all the time, and did start to wonder if everything was psychosomatic, though the first cp I didn't know what the symptoms of pregnancy actually were! Someone at work diagnosed my extreme distaste for coffee, and then I was trying to google for more symptoms on the web, which is when I found Mumsnet. Last month I definitely didn't have any symptoms and definitely wasn't pregnant, which makes me trust my earlier feelings a bit more

kath

I think I had a chemical pregnancy although I'm not sure as I hadn't taken a test.

I didn't have any pregnancy symptoms but then I don't normally until I'm around 10 weeks. With the suspected CP I had unbelievable period pain, excessive blood loss, lots of large clots and was also losing white tissue like matter. I spent most of 3 days in the bathroom in pain.

CK, could the symptoms you describe be severe PMT? I had this on a few occasions, was quite freaked out by it as I don't normally get PMT but I had pain before my period, felt sick and was in tears over the slightest thing, felt quite depressed actually.

CaffinatedKath - hi, I just wanted to reassure you that it is less likely that you had chemical pregnancies but more likely that you experienced ovarian cysts. Technically speaking a chemical pregnancy is one where you have, the pregnancy chemical hcg in your body, ie you should get a positive pregnancy test. The pain a few days before your period is more like a ruptured ovarian cyst. With a chemical pregnancy, the period is normally (although not always) late by a few days, and the bleeding and pain come together. It is no longer called a chemical pregnancy, once the pregnancy is seen on a scan, this is generally at around 5 weeks (ie about a week after the period was due).

As for your doctor - I would not be happy with him just saying wait, when you are starting later in life, yes it takes longer, but you should not have to wait as long for help. I hope you get what you want soon.