expectant management - how long can it take?

[deliakate]

so i think it looks like we've had a missed miscarriage and am thinking thru options of how it will come away. Does anyone have experience of waiting for this to occur naturally? In theory how long can it take? I am around 6 wks, but since i've heard of many ppl not finding out until their 12 wk scan, that must mean it can all stay inside for extended periods, not doing anything . . . Could that be months even? Desperately want to get my cycles back sooner rather than later. Thanks guys

Hi delia
with MMC2, I was on the waiting list for ERPC (scan at 11w, showed baby died at 9)... but MC nat at 12w.
with MMC3, scan at 12w, baby died at 10+1. I gave it a week to MC naturally, but then had ERPC at 13+1 as was moving house and needed to get it "out of the way". That sounds awful, but sometimes real life takes over.

There is a theory that suggests once you know the baby has died, the body will then start the expellation process... no idea if that's true.

FWIW IME my cycle returned to "normal" more quickly after the nat MC than the 2 ERPCs I've had. Others will tell a different story I'm sure.

Hope you are able to recover quickly and move on to the next stage. Good luck.

Hi Delia,

So sorry you are going through this. I had a missed miscarriage discovered at first scan at 14 weeks, the baby measured 8.5 weeks, so it had already been a long time. I chose to do medical management but unfortunately that didnt work either and so had to have an ERPC. Doctors wont let the mc go on "for months" because there would be a risk to you of developing an infection, but yes sometimes it can take a long time and each womans circumstances are different so its hard to predict.

Dont worry too much about getting your cycles back asap, they will come back whichever option you choose and you have probably already been told that after one miscarriage your chances of having a healthy pregnancy next time are extremely high. Try and base this decision on what you feel you can handle going through now, it can be quite a rough ride, (crashing pregnancy hormones dont help at all!) So chose the option that helps you best now and trust that your cycles will be OK.

take care of yourself xxxx

I had a scan at 8 weeks and there was a HB, then at 10 there was not. I decided to let it happen naturally and it took 10 days before the big bleed started, I was experiencing a little brown discharge and back ache for a couple of days leading up to the bleed.

I am sorry you are going through this, take care and be kind to yourself. xx

Mine was found at the 7 week scan (well very heavily suspected) when things measured 5 weeks with an empty sac. Because of slight changes in the rescan to confirm - I had to go back for a third confirmation scan before they'd declare the fat lady well and truly singing... so by the time I was booked in for D+C I was well over 10 weeks gone - so it had hung on for at least 5 weeks with no sign of giving up by then.

Really sorry for your loss :( My experience has been:

MMC 1 was discovered at 8 weeks and died at 6. ERPC the next day.

MMC 2 was discovered at 7 weeks and died 5-6 weeks. ERPC 2 days later. Dr said it was deeply embedded and he did not think it would have come away for another month or two.

No bleeding with either.

6 weeks is a bit early for a heartbeat, do they want to see you again in another week to confirm?

thanks for ur msgs. Sorry for everyone's losses. They do want to see me banana to confirm, but there was no embryo present on the scan, only the sac.

HI
I had a empty sack found at 8 and a half weeks (13/09/10). 10 days after my scan I MC naturally (23/09/10) . to start off with it was a very light period, very little pain. As my leaflet said it would be like a heavy period I thought to myself well this looks very easy!. I bled like that for 7 days. at about 8pm on the 30th I got dizzy, threw up and decided to have a bath as I felt 'off'. By 10pm I was screaming my house down in agony I had contractions, I couldn't sit down, and standing hurt, I was too hot I was then too cold! at about 11pm I got out the bath so I could be sick and lost about half a pint of blood on my bathroom floor. Lucky I had my partner at home who decided enough was enough and gave me sleeping tablets, 60mg codine, 1000mg parasetamol, and 400mg ibruphen. That dose knocked me out and in my sleep I lost alot more blood and the night time pad wasn't enough to hold that amount of liquid. the night after (1/10/10) was just painfull contractions for about 4 hours and couldn't get comfy at all.. on the 3rd night (2/10/10) I lost alot of blood again and had contractions for 2 hours while I sat in the bath crying. since then I have had little blood just like it was in the start but the pain is so bad I can barely walk or sit down Im assuming all the contractions hurt me or pulled badly hence the pain. I had my scan today and showed my empty sack is gone... From what I have gone through I felt like there was no support I cried today at my scan and she just smiled and said least you don't need medical treatment to remove the sack... I didn't know what the empty sack was called medically, or why and how it even happened. I feel like Ive had more support from the women on here and learned why type of pregnancy I have had.
Its called a blythe ovum, phantom pregnancy.. and learned about why a baby didn't form. Im not sure if it will happen again or even if there is such reasearch into MC and the different types etc.
I really hated doing it naturaly but I had my partner with me and found it easier with him. Its taking ages to finish bleeding and I wouldnt even wish this on someone I hated..

Sorry to be a bit graphic no one told me it could be this bad, I would have opted for a erpc as now I need to wait another 2 weeks to stop bleeding then 4 weeks ish for a period.. I think with a erpc it takes 3 weeks from the op to have a period... Im glad I did it this way because its made me n my partner a bit closer and i thik hes realized how horrible it is for the woman..