This is going to be really long but if anyone can help, please read until the end I’m in desperate need of advice! Im going to include as many details as I can here even if they may not be relevant. Im sorry for posting here for the 3rd time lol 🙈
I had a missed miscarriage in April where baby had stopped growing at 9 weeks. I had medical management on the 4th May and took medication to pass the baby after waiting it out for weeks. I discovered this alone as I had a big gut feeling that something is wrong and without my intuition I wouldn’t have found out until my 12 week scan. I noticed something was wrong the morning after baby’s heart had stopped (I had a private scan the day before and all was well). My hcg was not dropping and it was entirely intuition to be honest. The EPU would not see me as I am young with no history of miscarriage and no reason to believe anything was wrong so I had paid for a private scan to confirm baby had passed. I waited another week after this before taking the medication to pass the baby. I mention this because I already had anxiety in my first pregnancy which was debilitating, so I think this time intuition is confused with anxiety maybe and I want to make that clear incase anyone thinks that is the issue. I think my EPU think this is the case here and I want advice taking everything into account.
So I passed my last baby on the 5th and bleeding continued for about 2 weeks. I had a positive test still throughout all of this time. I got my ‘period’ on the 30th May. The day before I got my period, a pregnancy test was still positive, so I’m quite sure this wasn’t an actual period and I couldn’t have ovulated while my hcg was high enough to give a positive test. This period was also nothing like my usual and was actually lighter than a regular period. I had a scan 2 days before my period started which showed no left over tissue. I did a pregnancy test a couple of days into this period which was finally negative, including a digital. I did have unprotected sex towards the end of this period and also a couple of days after it. Also important to mention that a period is expected between 4-8 weeks after a miscarriage as HCG needs time to get back to 0 to ovulate and then a period afterwards, mine did not get to 0 before this period and the period was under 4 weeks after the miscarriage which I found strange.
I did ovulation testing as a form of contraception as I wasn’t ready to go back on birth control (I got pregnant on birth control before this, and needed to rethink my options as well as heal a little as it felt like a huge step for me). Obviously ovulation testing is not a strong form of contraception however my idea was that if I used other forms of protection or abstinence in the weeks it was more likely, as well as doing ovulation tests, I could track the spike and avoid unprotected sex around it. We did not have frequent unprotected sex any time I reasonably assumed it was possible and actually did not have sex at all the week I was predicted to ovulate. Also I did ovulation tests every day other than during my period and a few days after, as well as a couple of days before my positive tests. I never got a positive ovulation test.
So, my last period started on the 30th of May however it was only spotting for the first day or 2 and then got more like a normal period, this is not typical for me however I classed the start as the first day of spotting. I did a pregnancy test a couple of days in to double check and it was finally negative. On the 24th June, I woke up feeling really sick and had a feeling I should do a test but thought there was no point. I did do an ovulation test with my second morning urine which finally came up with a dark positive. This made me really suspicious and I decided to do my last pregnancy test which was a stark positive. Now, this makes no sense to me whatsoever and was where I first got really confused, I was still over a week before my period was even due and never got a positive ovulation test. I thought the test could have been faulty so I bought ever brand I could get just to double check. They were all positive and my digital said 2-3 weeks? I think I possibly ovulated during or right after my period. I went straight to my local EPU just incase maybe the negative tests I had before weren’t right and my HCG was somehow still high. My first HCG blood draw was 131 at supposedly 3 weeks 5 days pregnant. I got another 48 hours later which was 406 and it had over tripled. I declined the 3rd as I was confident with the increase.
Everything seemed fine so far. It was very different from my first pregnancy though as I had only started getting nausea at about 8 weeks last time, however my first sign this time was quite extreme nausea in the morning. I went on holiday on the 1st July. On the Saturday (6th), I was literally just sat down eating when I got quite painful cramping which I realised straight away was definitely not normal pregnancy cramping. It was primarily in my bum hole (sorry tmiðŸ˜). It felt the same as the shooting pain in your bum on your period but went on for about 10-20 minutes. I also had cramping low down in my uterus and I think maybe a little in my back but the pain in my bum was definitely the most noticeable. This kind of stopped and turned to milder uterine cramping but when I stood up to leave, I felt quite a moderate gush and it was fresh red blood. I’d say it was similar to a gush on the heaviest day of my period. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the amount but it went through my bikini and my shorts. I thought this was the start of a miscarriage but I didn’t have any more bleeding at all. I had that gush and then brown spotting when I wiped for the rest of the night. When I woke up the next morning it was back to completely clear normal pregnancy discharge. I rang the EPU who told me I’d just need to get another blood draw.
I was coming home yesterday and was literally at airport security and started bleeding again as well as some cramping. The cramping was far less severe this time and began a little while before the bleeding. It was painful enough to stand out in terms of normal pregnancy cramps, but not enough to be massively worrying. The bleeding didn’t begin as a gush however it was more constant. It definitely wasn’t enough to fill a pad but enough to feel the need to change my pad anyway. The cramping got slightly worse but I don’t think it was awful, I was quite emotional and more focussed on it because I thought this was the end of the pregnancy but I don’t think it was massively painful. After about 45 minutes the bleeding had slowed down but was still there and after an hour and 20 minutes I wasn’t really bleeding anymore at all, but was still spotting red blood when I wiped but not enough to go into my pad. The spotting turned to just a tiny bit of pink blood by the end of the night. I didn’t pass any clots at all this time or with the other bleeding.
Once I got off the plane, I went straight for my bloods but also dropped into the EPU to speak to a nurse because I was starting to get really concerned it was an ectopic pregnancy as I had started to notice that I had more pain in my right side at the bottom than anywhere else. I was told that it sounds like a SCH due to the stopping and starting but through my own research I don’t think this fits with the cramping as the first instance was definitely not mild cramping and was actually very painful. I mentioned this to her and she told me that some people do have severe cramping with it. I was told to get my blood drawn and still have my scan on Friday like was already planned and they aren’t really worried about it.
I got my blood drawn and my hcg has come back at over 22,000 (9th). This suggests that my hcg has well over doubled over every 48 hours since it was 406 on the 27th. I know that this really isn’t consistent with an ectopic pregnancy but I still feel really concerned about it. My mum had an ectopic pregnancy as well a few years ago. The rectal pain and irregular bleeding really concern me. I’ve got no shoulder pain. I have definitely been dizzy and have actually googled before all this if it’s normal for pregnancy to make you dizzy but it’s important to mention that I do have POTS and I’m basically always dizzy, but I did notice it’s been slightly worse. I’m back to regular white/clear discharge this morning since the bleeding yesterday. I noticed for a couple of hours this morning that I’ve got this feeling on my right side in the pelvic region, I wouldn’t even describe it as pain just kind of like a feeling? I’m not sure how to describe it, it’s enough to be noticeable and annoying but not enough to actually be painful. I took notice of it for hours and I did also notice that every so often I’d get the same kind of niggle in the middle of my uterus and the left side, however it is predominantly my right. In the time I’ve typed this out (twice because I accidentally deleted the first lol) that it’s actually gone away so maybe nothing?
I’m going to try and summarise here. So I’ve got increased dizziness but that can be otherwise explained, had an episode of extreme cramping, and especially rectal cramping and then bleeding which was very short, another episode of increased bleeding and more moderate cramping and very very slight ‘pain’ predominantly on my right side. I’ve also got quite high HCG which has been closer to tripling on average than doubling. I think I am earlier than it would seem based on LMP. I’m going to attach the pictures of my original pregnancy tests and my hcg levels and dates below. I really really need advice from anyone who’s experienced anything similar, has lots of knowledge on this or has had an ectopic pregnancy, an SCH or maybe a molar pregnancy. I’m trying not to worry so much about a molar pregnancy as it’s so rare but I’m aware a lot of the symptoms do match however my hcg is not super concerningly high? Thank you so so much for anyone that actually read all of this, I really do appreciate it and any advice is welcome, I’ve never been so confused, I feel like I’m just waiting to finally lose my baby or get some horrific news. Thank you if you even read this far :)
Beta results and the predicted dates (most likely inaccurate)
25/6/24 (3 weeks 5 days)- 131
27/6/24 (4 weeks 1 day)- 406
09/7/24 (5 weeks 5 days)- 22,000ish
(First pregnancy tests from the 24th June, supposedly 3 weeks 4 days pregnant)