Hi there, I haven't posted on here before but would really appreciate some other views on my situation, and whether it sounds likely that I've had 2 miscarriages back to back (rather than 1 miscarriage that just won't give up). Apologies for the long post, but this is important to me as I want to make sure the NHS is recording two miscarriages instead of 1 if that is the case, as they only investigate potential issues after 3 miscarriages.
At the end of May, I found out I'd had a missed miscarriage of twins (I'd seen a heartbeat for both foetuses two weeks before, at around 6 weeks) - they estimated I was around 6 weeks when the miscarriage happened. I had an ERPC on 8 June - the consultant was very thorough and did 4 rounds, so thought it would be unlikely there would be any tissue left. I had only 3 or 4 days of very light bleeding and then nothing.
About 10 days later, I thought I might be ovulating and did an ovulation test which came back positive. I was keen to continue trying for a baby without waiting. I did an ovulation test again a few days later, out of interest, and it came back negative (which I understand is consistent with ovulation).
Two weeks later, I noticed some brown discharge when I went to the toilet. I thought it might be connected with the ERPC/miscarriage, but when I did some googling, it sounded like it could be implantation bleeding. I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. However, the brown discharge continued for a few more days and I had some light cramping, so went to the hospital to get it checked out.
The hospital said it was too soon to see anything on a scan if it was a new pregnancy but also seemed to think it could well be associated with the previous miscarriage. When I said an ovulation test showed I had ovulated, they said that could be hormones acting up after the miscarriage (they didn't say anything about the fact that the ovulation test showed up as negative a few days later). They did an ultrasound, but couldn't see any vascular tissue (the consultant said he could see something that might be pregnancy tissue from the previous miscarriage, but it was non-vascular - I think that may have already been there and, from my research, it appears that it needs to be vascular in order to cause a false positive pregnancy test).
They took a blood test which showed my hcg and progresterone levels were too low for it to be a viable new pregnancy, but they couldn't tell whether it was a new miscarriage or just leftover hormones from the first miscarriage (even though it was 4 weeks after the ERPC). They said to do a pregnancy test again in a couple of weeks, by which point I'd probably have had my period anyway. It is now 2.5 weeks later (so over 6 weeks since the ERPC) and I got my period last week. However, I took a pregnancy test this morning and it's still showing up as positive.
I think it seems unlikely that, 6.5 weeks after a very thorough ERPC for a miscarriage at approx. 6 weeks, I can still be showing as pregnant from that first miscarriage when the consultant couldn't find any vascular tissue. I think the ovulation test and brown discharge are consistent with a second pregnancy which miscarried, and a more recent miscarriage would also explain why I still have levels of hcg that are being picked up on a pregnancy test.
Would be very grateful for other views on this. Thanks for reading to the end!