Help Reading HPT & OPK Test After MMC

[Cailin2912]

Hi Ladies,

I was wondering if you would be able to help/advise - am feeling a bit confused.

As a background, my husband and I started trying before Christmas and I was fortunate enough to fall pregnant the first month of trying. Sadly, I found out at an 11 week scan that I had a MMC even though we had strong heartbeats at the 7 and 9 week scans (I have a complicated medical history and as first pregnancy they were keeping an eye - hence all the scans!).

I had a surgical management about two and a half weeks ago which went fine - lost a bit more blood than they would have liked but didn’t need a transfusion and not anaemic. I have not had much bleeding since, just spotting of brown discharge - sorry if TMI.

Last night, I noticed a (again, sorry if TMI) stringy texture that was brownish and wondered if I was ovulating again and so this morning I decided to take a LH and Hcg test to see how everything was looking and the results have me confused. The HPT test shows a faint pregnancy line, but the OPK test is indicating that I am ovulating. Hopefully I’ve attached a pic to this post showing this mornings tests!

I wondered if anyone has had those results before at this length of time after a miscarriage and if you think I am ovulating or if the body still thinks I’m pregnant? Can you ovulate with low levels of Hcg?

My husband and I are keen to start trying again, which is why I started doing the tests as they seemed to work well with timing last time. However, as I wasn’t using them that long before, I have no experience on how to read anomalies like this!

Thank you

Sorry to hear your news, it's utterly devastating. After a MC (didn't have to be medically managed) I was told to not try for three months, at least two normal periods.

I'd be inclined to let your body relax for a bit x

Good luck!

It is safe to try again straight away after a MC BUT it is best to ensure pregnancy tests are negative first. After my MMC surgery (fetus lived until 11weeks) it took 8 weeks for the tests to go negative so can take ages.

You can ovulate with low HCG levels but also cannot trust OPKs until the MC hormones are gone,

My advice is to wait until your pregnancy tests go negative then TTC (if you are aiming to, but if you are looking at OPKs I am guessing yes)

Thank you so much for your responses - really really helpful. I’m very black and white and like to have data/analytics so I find this whole process quite frustrating!

I had a blood test done on 24/02 (they weren’t able to get bloods from me prior to the miscarriage - I have terrible veins) and got the results today to say that my Hcg at that stage was at 1,113 (one week after the surgery).

I don’t know if anyone would have any idea how long it would take for that level to get out of your system? Or is it a case of, depends on the person? I don’t know if that is high Hcg levels one week after a miscarriage?

@Cailin2912 I would ask your GP to see if they would be willing to do more bloods to see if the levels go down or up.

It can take many weeks for hcg to completely go out your system. The issue is if you TTC without awaiting a blank test its very hard to determine if it is a new pregnancy or hcg left from miscarriage

Thank you! They did say that if I was still getting positive tests at 3 weeks (which will be this coming Wednesday) to give the EPU a call - what they do at that point I don’t really know but hopefully by then that faint line will have disappeared 🤞🤞🤞

Test on frer tests because they detect as low levels as 6. It took 11 weeks for my hcg to get below 5 which is officially negative and I had this confirmed with a blood test. Despite the 11 weeks I still ovulated twice.

@Cailin2912 The EPU will likely scan you and do another urine pregnancy test. The issue is that if you have conceived again, itll be too early for them to see that! So if you have been having unprotected sex it might take a bit of time to determine if this is new or just hormones taking their time to leave

[quote TheDaydreamBelievers]@Cailin2912 The EPU will likely scan you and do another urine pregnancy test. The issue is that if you have conceived again, itll be too early for them to see that! So if you have been having unprotected sex it might take a bit of time to determine if this is new or just hormones taking their time to leave[/quote]
Thank you Daydream, you’ve been a wealth of information/tips! We’re not seriously TTC yet but we have been intimate once since the miscarriage as I think we both needed to be close, after all of this. Of course this could have resulted in a new pregnancy and I have absolutely no basis for this other than a gut feeling, but I don’t think that resulted in anything. You never know though.

I think we’re both finding it at this stage a bit frustrating as we just want to move on and get back to normal. I think lockdown doesn’t help either as you don’t have much to distract you, so time goes veeeeeeeerry slowly.

@dippyegg32

Test on frer tests because they detect as low levels as 6. It took 11 weeks for my hcg to get below 5 which is officially negative and I had this confirmed with a blood test. Despite the 11 weeks I still ovulated twice.

Oh I’ve never used them before, just the strips from Femometer so will get some of those and see what they say.

I’m so sorry it took so long for your levels to go below 5 - can I ask at what point in your pregnancy did you miscarry?

I feel so ignorant asking this question, but could you have fallen pregnant during those two ovulations? Or did the Hcg in your system prevent that from happening?

@Cailin1808 yes the consultant said the hcg wouldn't have allowed for conception. The heartbeat stopped around 6+2 and had an ercp at 7+4.

@Cailin1808 the info I got was v slightly different (annoyingly common in MC/MMC across the healthboards). My nurse said if hcg gets low enough you can ovulate and can conceive, but that remaining hcg makes you less likely to conceive than normal.

I used the cheap strips to check the hcg drop then FRERs at the very end to make sure it was all gone as they have the lowest threshold. I hope you get some clarity soon!

[quote TheDaydreamBelievers]@Cailin1808 the info I got was v slightly different (annoyingly common in MC/MMC across the healthboards). My nurse said if hcg gets low enough you can ovulate and can conceive, but that remaining hcg makes you less likely to conceive than normal.

I used the cheap strips to check the hcg drop then FRERs at the very end to make sure it was all gone as they have the lowest threshold. I hope you get some clarity soon![/quote]
Afraid I’m not at the ovulating stage yet. I bought some FRER tests and had a faint positive on that today. Ended up having a scan today and they found, what looks to be, some retained tissue so I have to have (another) operation next Thursday for them to go in and get the rest out.

Finding this all quite frustrating and upsetting. I feel like we’re falling at every hurdle with our first pregnancy journey 😔 I just hope these aren’t signs of what’s to come if I ever fall pregnant again.

@Cailin2912 I'm so so sorry to hear that. I had an ercp in December then medical management in jan and in feb I cried my eyes out when I was told I was being booked in for another op because that day (a Thursday) my hcg was 7.3. By some miracle I woke up Friday morning to my first proper heavy period (second period though since mc) and it flushed everything so I went back for more bloods on Monday as I was desperate to avoid surgery and the period had bought it down to 3.8. All in all it took 11 weeks. That was over two weeks ago now so should be closer to 0. What are your levels? Hand holding lovely.

@dippyegg32 Unfortunately, they didn’t take any bloods yesterday so no idea how they’re looking. She had said that the levels I had a week after the miscarriage were quite high (1,100) which was one of the prompts to get a scan.

I have to do some pre-op stuff on Monday and I think they’ll be doing blood tests then and will hopefully test Hcg as I only have one Hcg result through all of this. Frustrating as I have no clue where I’m going with it and at what speed.

I don’t know if you know/have read anything but any idea how quick people’s Hcg went down and ovulated/period after miscarriage 2.0?? I just want to move on from this and get back to normal. Mentally, I was there but the physicality of all of this prevents me from moving on entirely which is so frustrating!