Prothrombin Time Test

[NotCopingWell1]

Long shot. I'm impatient waiting weeks for a follow up after blood tests at Imperial.

Everything looks to have come back normal, apart from my Prothrombin Time Test. The range is given as 12.8 - 17.4 seconds and my result was a little out of range at 11.7 seconds.

Is there anyone out there who has had a similar result and can tell me what it meant for them? I fear it's so close to normal range, and with other clotting factors being OK, I'll be told there isn't anything that can be done.

I have one child but suffer with infertility as well and recurrent loss. This crap has been dictating my life for nearly six years and my MH is crap. Any little bit of insight to save my mind having no parameters to mull over for the next few weeks would be much appreciated.

I had mine come back “lower than normal reference point” …it varies these reference points. It just means your blood could clot faster than normal …but this test on its own won’t really tell you anything. I’ve started taking aspirin 75mg every night following professional advice x

Hi NotCopingWell1, I just had the same thing back from Imperial!! My prothrombin time is 12.5 seconds so JUST out of range. I have to wait like 34 days before my follow up and it's legit killing me. I've had 4 early miscarriages so hoping this is my answer.

If you don't mind me asking, what did the doctors end up saying to you about it? what was the recommendation in terms of treatment? I have read about heparin but there's since been a study to say there's nothing to prove it actually helps, which SUCKS as I've read about many women using it and it helping them to keep a pregnancy.

Am wondering if I should just try baby aspirin in the meantime whilst I wait for the follow up as we have one cycle in between and I was going to try naturally...

Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated - feel free to PM me if easier

Also in the same situation! Would really appreciate knowing any advice/suggested protocols to stop my mind running wild/endless googling would be appreciated :) x

It’s so frustrating isn’t it @HoneyBath. No one has replied yet lol. Hopefully someone will soon, or we will have follow ups soon. Only 9 more days until mine!!

Yes the waiting is the worst - same as you with 4 losses, 2 were MMC. Hard being able to see all the results but not understand them!

Ah i'm sorry :( when is your follow up? Happy new year to you btw, let's hope 2024 brings us our rainbow

My prothrombin time was even quicker than those mentioned on here. I have had one MMC. I am also starting baby asprin daily of my own accord

Hi all,
I’m in the same situation as you, my PT was 12.6, just outside of the range with everything else normal. What was the outcome at your appointments?

I have 5 weeks until mine, seems crazy!

Hi Poppy,

As it was just outside the range the doc wasn’t worried about it so it wasn’t an issue like I thought it would be. So unless any of your other results are on the low/high/positive side don’t necessarily expect anything to come from it. She wanted me to repeat the TEG test went pregnant, as if these results, which were normal in a non pregnant state were found abnormal when pregnant I could take aspirin or heparin. I actually found out I was pregnant a few days after my results chat but was so worried cos of my history and as I couldn’t get into st Mary’s for 2 weeks I just started taking 75mg after my positive test as I knew it wouldn’t do any harm. Annoyingly it meant I couldn’t re-do the TEG test when I was already taking it, so just one to be aware of.

i think they were clutching at straws to find anything else wrong with me but I did ask about a septate uterus and I happened to have an old scan pic to show her where she said she thinks I have a very slight sub septate which she was going to sort via hysteroscopy before I got pregnant. Not sure your history but worth asking about that unless you know for a fact you don’t have it? I had it confirmed when I was pregnant as apparently you can see it more then, which is why it’s missed so much on scans pre pregnancy. Mine is only small though, so it’s more heart shaped than others, which can cause early miscarriages etc, but there’s not a tonne of research on this (though Tommy’s are the best for it).

I’m back on the wait list for said hysteroscopy now though as I’ve just had a d&c for a missed miscarriage. Saw a sac in the right place etc but nothing appeared in it and it didn’t grow past 6 weeks which sucks.

Good luck with the appointment, the wait is torture but just try to keep yourself busy.

Hi esb27,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and I’m so sorry to hear about your losses, it’s really soul destroying isn’t it. I’ve had 6 miscarriages, all between 5-8 weeks and two failed ivf attempts, we managed to get six blastocysts, but we found out through pga testing they were all abnormal.

I know what mean about clutching at straws to find something. I’ve been tested at our local reoccurrent miscarriage clinic and various private clinics and everything comes back ‘normal’. I wish they would find something, it would be easier if we knew what we were dealing with. From my untrained eye, like yours, my test results look ok, except the PT was 12.6, but same as yours, so very close to the cut off.

I dont think I have a septate uterus, the amount of scans I’ve had, I would have hoped they would have noticed by now, but I do have endometriosis, which none of our doctors mentioned, one even said that he didn’t think I had it on two separate occasions. So there could be other things that have been missed, so thanks for the heads up! I had a laproscopy to remove the endo in December, including a really nasty bit on one of my ovaries, so I really hope it’s helped. Although, the doctors have said that endo doesn’t cause miscarriages through chromosomal abnormalities, I have found research where they found that putting animal oocytes in close proximity to endo tissue caused chromosomal abnormalities. In the absence of any other ideas, it could be my issue. It could be worth considering endo if you haven’t already. I definitely didn’t think I had it because I didn’t have heavy, crippling periods, but not everyone with endo does. Periods should not be painful at all (who knew!), often endo get misdiagnosed as IBS. It’s definitely worth considering, particularly if you have period pain, gut symptoms, or any structural abnormalities that you’ve been told are ‘normal’, eg ovary behind uterus.

I have everything crossed for you that you find some answers and have your rainbow baby soon x

Ahhh so sorry to hear that. This journey is SO hard isn’t it. PGA testing was going to be next on my list if my miscarriage tissue came back with any chromosome issues.

I would definitely still ask about the septate, mine is only slight but NO other docs have picked up on it until I spoke to Tommy’s (and I like you have had sooo many scans). I think a lot of doctors aren’t trained in looking for it (or if you only have it slightly like me they’ll just brush it off and not mention because they don’t think it’s an issue!!). You most likely don’t have it but can’t help but to ask.

I might do sperm DNA fragmentation test next, my partners sperm levels are fine but we’ve never tested DNA fragmentation which can be abnormal if everything else is fine. Am also looking into getting a full microbiome test done with someone like Fertilysis. Not sure if you’ve looked into it but they seem to have success helping some women out with that side of things (which can affect recurrent miscarriage etc).

I deffo think endo can cause miscarriage, so that’s good you got yours sorted! I had a small bit which was discovered via a lap last year but I just had another miscarriage so it hasn’t helped me so far.

Have you also looked into karotyping? If chromosome issues are your problem? That’s another one for my list too.

Thanks so much, I hope you get your answers (or baby) soon. I hate this feeling of not knowing, especially not knowing how long it will go on for as there has to be a cut off for me, I can’t do this forever. I don’t have the stomach to do another 5 years of fertility problems. I’ll go mad!! X

Hi esb,

I know exactly what you mean, it’s all consuming isn’t it. We’ve been trying for 5 years this year and it will be our last for sure. I’m 41 next month, so if it doesn’t happen soon, after everything we’ve been through then I can’t carry on.

It’s like piecing a jigsaw together in the dark. I’m glad you know where you’re heading next, but I hope that Tommys can fix this for you. Although it sounds like you have a plan for what’s next. It always makes me feel better when I have a plan of where we’re heading next. We’ve had the DNA frag testing, both had karyotype tests and I’ve had a vaginal microbiome test too. Everything came back ok, except my partners DNA frag was just over what it should be at 32%, although we did IVF complete for our last round and the issues were with the egg, so the sperm was all ok. Anyway, here’s hoping it was the endo and it’s now gone. Honestly the photo of it on my ovary - it looked so sore, it made me think there’s no way that it couldn’t have affected my eggs. So fingers crossed.

Wishing you all the best too x