Possible miscarriage?

[E402]

Hiya - I'm 5 weeks pregnant and been experiencing bleeding today. First thing in the morning was like a light period, and has been on/off throughout the day getting much lighter each time to just spotting occasionally now. Total bleeding hasn't been enough to fill a pad.

My symptoms fluctuated right from the start, and I've convinced myself these last three days I've barely had any and that I no longer feel pregnant. Am devastated that I've potentially miscarried today :(

I've been referred to EPU for possible scan/bloods but they haven't contacted me yet and so I'm going crazy in the meantime.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Hi @E402 - I'm so sorry you're having these symptoms today. I am currently experiencing a MC after having similar symptoms to you but the problem is that no two women have the same pregnancy so there's no way to diagnose what's going on for you on this forum. My doctor didn't seem overly surprised that I was bleeding and said that it's really common in pregnancy - she said they wouldn't use bleeding alone to diagnose MC. I also know what you mean about convincing yourself you never had pregnancy symptoms in the first place - in my case, that was my brain preparing for bad news. It might not be the same for you, but you haven't imagined the symptoms in the first place.

You've done all of the right things being put in contact with EPU (my experience suggests they'll do a few blood tests, 2 days apart to check your hCG levels are doubling every few days as you're a bit early for a scan to be conclusive). I'm sorry I can’t offer you a more positive story, but I wanted to say two things:
1- please prepare to not have any answers immediately. It took a week for me to find out what was going on.
2- for this moment, you are pregnant. Try to remember that you have to look after yourself in the same way as you have been since your positive test.

I wish you all the luck in the world and hope that your outcome is different to mine. xxx

Thank you so much for replying and for your kind words. I'm so sorry for what you're going through. I wish you all the strength to get through it. It's such a scary time and so much of it is spent without answers - pregnancy is such a gruelling process to go through!

Your message is really informative and has helped me prepare a bit for whatever the next steps will be. I will update my post once I have an outcome for anyone who stumbles on it later. I'm also here if you need to talk xxxx

Bleeding in pregnancy is more common than we are told, but it’s hard to know for sure. Scans at this gestation will only show a sac which is inconclusive.

I think at this early in your pregnancy you can keep an eye on things using pregnancy tests if your GP or EPU isn’t helpful. I have had early miscarriages/chemical pregnancies and when I lost the pregnancy, my pregnancy test was negative very quickly (about 4-5 days after the initial positive)

Have you done a pregnancy test? Look for one which is 20 sensitivity (the early ones are 5). You need a reading above 20 to be considered conclusively pregnant by a doctor.

fingers crossed for you

Thank you so much for your reply. The EPU just called to book me in for a scan tomorrow - I asked about the bloodwork as my gp had also mentioned that and that the scan at this stage might not show anything - but they said gp only requested a scan and that's all they would do! 🙄So that wasn't very helpful.

I have tested a few times myself but with early tests, they were strong positives but perhaps not enough days have passed yet. I didn't think about the hcg level required for testing so I'll try and get some regular ones today and retest thank you xx

By ‘not being able to see anything’- they generally mean not being unable to see anything conclusive. Short of insanely irregular cycles, a little sac should be seen from 5 weeks pregnant.

However, this really won’t tell you anything. Sometimes the sac can look an odd shape or irregular, but this still doesn’t conclude anything. A miscarriage can’t be fully diagnosed until cardiac activity (a heartbeat) has been seen at one scan, then it stops at the next- or if no heartbeat is visible by about 8-9 weeks, with two scans to confirm the pregnancy didn’t progress.

As a pp posted said, it may be 2 weeks before you find out what is going on. Brace yourself for that- it really is a horrible wait, but it’s good EPU are seeing you soon.

Again- fingers crossed for you. I hope you manage to get hold of some less sensitive tests soon.

You also can get a private HCG blood test for about £100- this might be an option for you if you can afford it. I have done this with one chem pregnancy when I should have been 6 weeks but my HCG was 6.2 (under 5 is not pregnant)- it was a bitter £120 to lose but meant I could move on a bit quicker rather than waiting for a scan. X

Wishing you lots of luck today. Let us know how you get on.

I've just thought but if EPU won't do a blood test, ask your GP as they often have the facility at GP surgeries to do this. I had both of mine through GP rather than EPU and the results came back the following day.

Honestly thank you so much for your informative answers it really does help.

I had my scan today, just as you said it was inconclusive for what might happen - they did see a gestational sac and a yolk sac but couldn't tell which way it was going to go. They've booked me in for another scan in 2 weeks (don't know how I'm going to get through the wait!😱) to see if there has been growth.

I took a clear blue test that put me at 3+ weeks (which I think I'm right in saying means at least 5 weeks for calculation purposes?). So it appears I currently have at least the minimum hcg levels required for that dating to appear.

So that's all I have to go by right now! Will keep monitoring with my fingers crossed and update my thread when I know more xxx

Thank you very much I will definitely try that on Monday! I did ask again at EPU today and they said basically as GP hadn't requested bloods, only a scan, they couldn't do it (even though gp had told me I should do bloods 🙄).

Wishing you lots of luck. Look after yourself and let us know if you need anything xxx

Hi all sorry to jump on here, my doctor has stated that I’m probably going through a miscarriage.
Monday I got a positive how many weeks 1-2, then Wednesday onwards the digitals where coming up not pregnant and faint lines on line tests although Monday on the line tests they was either faint or negative🤷🏻‍♀️ I started getting period cramps on Thursday then Friday I started lightly bleeding which got a bit heavier in the day but nowhere near as heavy as my usual period, today I’ve not cramps and bleeding slowed down, I’ve still not had any blood clots either? My bloods came back the same day and doctor rang and said my HCG was low but not as low as he thought it would be but still thinks it’s a miscarriage and to take another pregnancy test in 5-7 days, I’m so confused this is my first pregnancy so never experienced anything like this but comparing a lot on google images my bleeding is light and as I said no clots, I’ve not been offered any form of ultrasound scan to back up blood tests, just don’t know what to do other than wait and see and do another test next week
😕

I'm sorry you're going through that. I'm a little unclear on your dates but it sounds like you were very early. This means a scan wouldn't show anything unfortunately and the only way to know is by testing HCG, which is what a pregnancy test does. If that's negative, then unfortunately it seems you've miscarried. If it was very early, that's often called a chemical pregnancy as your womb has prepared but there is very little development and that could explain the lack of clots. I miscarried around 9 weeks and had very few, small clots
I hope you have plenty of support. Take your time and be gentle on yourself.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. I agree with what ZoeQ90 has said. It's such a horrible wait in the early days to find out what's going on. Wishing you all the strength to get through it xxx

I just wanted to provide an update - had the follow up scan today at the EPU and all is ok, embryo and heartbeat seen😊(7 + 2 weeks).

I wanted to include some more info for those that may come across thread: I had fairly strong nausea at 4-5 weeks and then medium bleeding on and off across a week or so - ranging from light pink to red to brown, including some clots and very strong lower back ache. Across that week all my other symptoms disappeared including the nausea. I feared the worst especially with total vanishing of symptoms.

At around 6.5 weeks the nausea came back (every day, and still persists) and the bleeding has stopped.

None of my scans could see a reason for the bleeding but I was told that can be common.

xxx

@E402 thats fab! I will definitely keep everything crossed for you to have a easy pregnancy journey!
Update on my situation is a week ago on Monday the doctors rang me and said definitely looks like a miscarriage and if my pregnancy symptoms had gone then that indicates miscarriage also there would be no point in follow up blood tests. My bleeding fully stopped on Tuesday 10th and tests where negative after that, but since a few days ago my boobs/nipples have been on fire, tiredness back, some sicky feelings, painful intercourse although we have decided not to try again so soon and I’ve gone back on my pill, period is due in 10 days x