Empty gestational sac - advice needed

[JP3264]

Hi all,

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I went for a private scan at 6 weeks and there was a gestational sac measuring 9.3mm, but no yolk sac or anything else. I've been told to go back in 10 days, but I'm certain on dates, so it's not looking hopeful. I had a blood hcg of 1800 9 days before the scan, so think the yolk sac should be there by now. I had a feeling that something had gone wrong when my symptoms eased up, but I've had no bleeding at all.
My periods always have an hour or two of really intense bleeding where it feels like it's trying to expel everything in one go, so I imagine I'm going to find a later stage miscarriage pretty bad. I know someone who had a terrible experience with the pills so don't want to go down that route. It would be good to know how to access a d&c if a mc doesn't happen naturally within so many weeks.

I assume that the EPAU will only start to take an interest once I get the second scan (and that I'll have to repeat the process with them adding another 10 days of waiting). Is this correct?
My local hospital are underperforming so I'm not even sure I want to go there.

My employer provides Vitality insurance, but I assume this won't be covered? Is it worth calling them anyway?
Has anyone had a d&c privately? Did you have to go for scans a couple of weeks apart there too?

Sorry if this is a bit all over the place. I just don't want to get to 10 weeks and still be waiting 10 days for the next scan or whatever. Apart from on here, I have no idea how to get any advice on this.

I've been TTC with not even a hint of a positive line for over 2 years, so I really thought this was it :/

Thanks everyone

Aw, I'm so sorry. No advice on the practicalities, however I had slight bleeding at nearly six weeks and had the same message, empty sac. Booked me in again for a week but i was so confident on dates so expected the worst. But all was fine. So please don't give up hope. X

Thanks @LaCorOr
That's good to hear.

I'm sorry you're stuck in this awful waiting period. Unfortunately it's just one of those things where you really don't know and it could go either way- I've had it both ways.

I've been measuring two weeks behind, thought it was definitely not going to work out but I'm 28 weeks now and baby is kicking away, the gap decreased to 10 days at my 12 week scan, which I did have to go back for two weeks later since they couldn't do the checks. I still don't really know what happened as I'm certain on my dates, and it would mean I had a positive test a few days after conception going by their dates, but there we go.

I've also had it the other way in between DC1 and now where everything seemed just a few days behind, but then it didn't progress. I still had symptoms as well.

With DC1 I lost all symptoms by 6 weeks and was convinced I had miscarried, but everything was fine.

Our bodies can be confusing and amazing and heartbreaking.

I hope you get good news, and if you don't that the process is as painless both physically and emotionally as something as awful as this can be

@addler thanks for this. I do wonder if there is some variability in how early stage embryos develop, but it's easier for them to assume that dates are wrong.

Hi @JP3264

Sorry to hear what you’re going through. I think you’re correct in that you’d need 2 scans at EPU for them to confirm miscarriage. I had to get a GP referral first to go to EPU but I think some are different.

I just wanted to say though I have Vitality Health Insurance through work and I have been reading the terms this morning and it seems to say that miscarriage is covered as standard. I don’t know how you get access to the care but it is definitely worth phoning them to see. I would assume you’d also need two scans there as well at 6 weeks though.

Also to add that I found my (NHS) hospital EPU very good, and although there were waits to be seen when I was there for an appointment, they gave me appointments very quickly and I phoned them loads of times to ask questions and they were really helpful. My friend miscarried through her private healthcare and at one point was still referred to her NHS EPU, I am not sure why but I thought maybe they have the most expertise. So although your local hospital may not be great in general it’s possible your EPU will be fine.

I hope you manage to get your answers, wishing you the best.

It is still early days, I had a scan at between 6 and 7 weeks and they saw one sac with a heartbeat and one that was undeveloped with no visible heart beat or feotal pole. At 12 weeks there was clearlynw of them bouncing around the screen, bit of a shock! They are almost 9 now and I still don't know who was 'hiding' and never will. I guess what I'm saying is I think you have to wait and see for now x

@Natpat81 thanks, this is very helpful. I've felt like I'm going round in circles trying to work out what to do, so I really appreciate you looking up the vitality terms. I'll spend a bit more time thinking things over, but it sounds like it would be good to try contacting them sooner rather than later.