41 and anembryonic pregnancy just confirmed. Is there any hope?

[grazia11]

I am 41 and my longed for pregnancy has just been confirmed as anembryonic. I have to go in and have a procedure next week as i show no sign of miscarrying the placenta.

My first pregnancy was terminated last year at 13 weeks because the foetus was so ill and unlikely to survive the rest of the pregnancy.

I was so depressed after I lost my last pregnancy - I blamed myself for being old (although I have always been fit and healthy and mostly people are surprised when i say how old i am - I know this means nothing in gynecological terms). It put a great strain on my relationship. I felt so useless. There didn't seem to be much point to anything much. Anyway, I had just started to feel better when I fell pregnant again. Have had a few weeks of feeling quietly joyful - felt incredibly fit and well - and now this. I feel so sad and angry - even though I know I'm not being single out for specially harsh treatment. It would help to hear some optimistic tales from others - is there anyone out there who has been in a similar situation and has gone on to have a healthy pregnancy? I feel so awful at the moment - and I need to buck up for the sake of my dh. Any tips for this, anyone?

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Bumping this, wish I could help more, sorry.

Sorry to hear this. Don't really know what it is. Wishing you the best, tho.

Oh grazia my heart goes out to you.

20 years ago had ds1 unplanned at 19. Spent the next 15 years trying to get pregnant again. Unfortunately 9 years ago nearly died with an ectopic pregnancy, didn?t realise I was pregnant thought I had bad IBS. . Ended up with emergency surgery and had to remove one of my tubes.

Devastated?..1 tube and about 4 periods a year?Not a lot of chance of getting pregnant, accepted it and got on with my career , loving dp and wonderful ds1.

2.5 years ago, had terrible virus, so decided I was going to go for it and have a mega de-tox. For 6 months only ate organic rice and chicken and no alcohol, smoking, lots of exercise, loads of water. Felt great but after 4 months felt absolutely shi* again.

Look through Internet decided my systems were of a peptic ulcer, booked to see doctor, who looked at me in disgust and said you are 5 months pregnant.

I had wonderful pregnancy resulting in ds2 and after waiting 18 years for a baby, just like buses 2 come along at one. And I am now pregnant with dd1, due any day now.

I am 39. Hope this helps.

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grazia, how you feeling now, thinking of you.

Hi grazia11

I am very sorry to hear your news.

By anembryonic, do you mean an empty gestational sac with no embryo or yolk sac?

If so, do you know the sac size as by transvaginal scanning, according to my research on the net, a yolk sac could appear as late as when the mean sac diameter (MSD) of the gestational sac is 20mm although a pregnancy is often considered abnormal if it appears later than 13mm (MSD). For an embryo,I believe the values are 25mm and 18mm respectively.

The other thing you might want to ask is whether your uterus is retroverted as there are pregnancy stories of where an embryo is found to be 'hiding'. I am not sure of the truth of this but though it might be something you want to ask.

As for the procedure I believe you can have an ERPC or wait to miscarry naturally. Were these options offered? There are pros and cons of both. Perhaps if you do have the procedure, you could request an analysis to check if there is a reason for the miscarriages.

I did this research as I am currently going through a similar situation. At the last scan, my sac was 17mm but empty. My HCG levels keep rising and I have not had any bleeding yet but my consultant for the moment has recommended miscarrying naturally to surgical intervention if he diagnoses my pregnancy as an anembryonic gestation. I was told by the sonographer and the consultant that at my hospital, they do not diagnose an empty sac as a miscarriage until the sac diameter reaches at least 20mm.

Chickenrice and grazia im so sorry for you because this happened to me too. They called it a "blighted ovum" at the time.
I think it is the same thing.
I waited to miscarry and did so at 13 weeks after diagnosis at 7 weeks.
I was offered surgical intervention but declined as i felt that if it was meant to happen then it should do naturally.
It was painful and difficult.
We waited for 3 months to try again and concieved my son who is now 2.
Good luck and i hope that every thing works out for you soon.

So sorry. What a horrible thing to happen. I had my dd (second child) at 41. Just read that Susan Sarandon had her boys at 43 and 46.
Good luck, and give yourself time to grieve.

Thank you all for your messages of support - Redtartanlass it sounds like you really went through the mill but am so happy to hear it turned out well for you in the end. I still feel very sad and, because of various other bad news things going on in my life, like the one good thing on my horizon has been snatched away. I need to get over this feeling though, and fast. As it doesn't help - last time I entered the worst depression of my life and i can't afford to let that happen again.

I didn't fully understand all of your information, chickenrice - the info I have from the scan, though, is that the sac is 13.8mm and there is a yolk sac but no embryo. I have a scan booked prior to the procedure on Thurs to just double check that there really is no sign of an embryo. Last time I was pregnant, the embryo appeared very clearly on the scans so I don't think that retroversion is the issue - though i wish it were... Thank you for taking the time to write though - I so appreciate it especially as you are going through your own stuff at the moment too.

grazia11,

Just thought that I'd tell you that I obtained my info from the Creighton University Medical Center website under the 'Basic Imaging', 'Ultrasound of an Early Pregnancy' section. Perhaps you may like to read it yourself prior to the scan appt. There are other sites if you search for Blighted Ovum or Anembryonic Gestation on the net which may help you with questions you might want to ask of your doctor before he performs the procedure.

Gestational sacs are said to grow at a rate of approx 1mm a day.

I'm not sure how far along you are but there are posts on the net where embryos are found on scans as late as 8 or 9 weeks. The Miscarriage Association too has a good website with links to other sites for info and support. I have found all this helpful in coming to terms with my situation.

As for me, I have just returned from the hospital and my consultant has booked me in for a ERPC, (Evacuation of the Retained Products of Conception) this Wednesday which is similar to a D & C but where suction is used to remove the pregnancy, etc. The sac size was 19mm, not much growth at all since it was 17mm 10 days ago. Also it seems on the scan, that there is bleeding around the sac. He has taken blood to test my HCG levels once more. He has decided in my case not to wait any longer for me to miscarry naturally because there is a question of whether mine could be a partial molar pregnancy. He said he will send the tissue from the procedure to histology for analysis. I think they can send off tissue for analysis for investigation into recurrent miscarriages although they do not do this routinely in every D&C or ERPC.

Good luck for Thursday and I shall be thinking of you.

Thanks for that info, chickenrice. I will look up the terms you suggest. I think I am due to have an ERPC too. I will be 9 weeks on Thursday and my consultant booked me in after the 8 week scan last week. My dh thinks that there is hope for us yet and that I am being unnecessarily miserable. It really helps to have practical messages like yours. I will be thinking of you on Wednesday.

Grazia and chickenrice - just wondering how your both getting on....