post miscarriage advice

[iamgroucho]

HI all,

Sadly my partner suffered a miscarriage last Saturday. Today we went in to the EPU and she has been told she still has a HCG of 5000, which they say is still quite high. Is that normal, does anyone have any experience of what this might mean? We understand this could be a symptom of ectopic pregnancy, but she doesn't have any other symptoms?

Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks

Dan

Yeah she had a scan and there is something left, but they were't sure what, they referred to it as a "cystic area" which would probably clear. They are due to check hcg again on Tuesday.

Hi Dan I'm so sorry you are going through this. The reason for checking HCG levels are falling is to rule out ectopic or molar pregnancy or retained tissue.
It depends how far along your partner was when she miscarried how high the levels would be, so as LF said as long as levels are dropping when they are rechecked on Tuesday then it's unlikely there's anything abnormal to worry about. It has taken me 3 weeks to get a negative pregnancy test each time I have miscarried at 8-10 weeks (the higher the levels were, the longer they take to fall to zero)
If you are someone who finds it reassuring to have all the factual information then the Miscarriage Association is the site you need. If you or your partner need some moral support at a horrible time then please keep posting. It's such a shitty thing to happen.

THanks for the responses. My partner went in again today to have her HCG levels checked and they have dropped but only to 3000. The hosp is not happy with that so have made another appointment for next week.

Dan

It is hard to tell - high hcg doesn't always mean a problem. My last miscarriage, mine took a month to fall from 9000+ to under 100. I had no retained material. When I was seen by a non expert doc, he was worried, but the more experienced staff were OK with it.

So provided it is going down that's good. It can be a slow process, but do not worry so long as it is going down and there are no signs of infection etc'. Its important to check temperature and that the abdomen is not hard, hot out painful daily until you get the all clear though.

...the cyst area might be the luteal cyst - sometimes it takes a while to shrink and can cause pain and slow fall of hormones.

Found this which might be useful. As you can see the times do vary. Missed Miscarriages requiring an op like mine are the slowest (the same as for an abortion, because the body doesn't know until the op that the pregnancy has failed) but all MCs can take some time for the HCG to go. Hope it helps. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6462569?dopt=Abstract As I said I'm still having weekly tests five weeks after my ERPC but they are not overly concerned, it's good they keep an eye on us though, just in case.