Miscarriage? Incomplete miscarriage? Partial Molar? Or everything ok?

[IVFjourney12]

Hi - I just wondered if anyone has had a similar experience or advice as I’m in an awful state of limbo and desperately seeking answers that don’t exist!

I had an IVF pregnancy (FET), and at 5w3d pregnant I had some brown spotting / bleeding. I have previously had an ectopic pregnancy so I went straight to the EPU for a scan. At that scan they saw a gestational sac and yolk sac (no fetal pole but apparently that’s fine for that stage) and they said all looked good. The following day, after the scan, I had stomach cramps with the pain radiating through to my back. I could just tell it was a miscarriage. Went to the loo and there was bright red blood with some small clots. The bleeding didn’t quite fill a pad over the course of the day, and the pain passed relatively quickly. For the following two days I had brown blood / spotting. Again, only filling half a pad at most.

I was certain it was a miscarriage (particularly given the back pain), however my IVF clinic said I had to keep taking my progesterone pessaries “just in case” it wasn’t.

I then went to the EPU for two blood tests, 48 hours apart, and to everyone’s surprise my HCG was not only very high, but had also significantly increased (albeit not doubled) from circa 29,000 to 43,000. (At this stage I was 5w6d pregnant). I was concerned it wasn’t doubling but the nurse said that once a yolk sac has been seen, hcg doesn’t necessarily double every 48 hours anymore.
But it’s all a little unknown. So from that result they couldn’t confirm a miscarriage but also couldn’t confirm a viable pregnancy.

I now have to wait another 8 days until the EPU will scan me to see whether I have miscarried or whether it’s miraculously a viable pregnancy. So I’m in the most horrendous limbo where I was sure I’d had a miscarriage, but now what with the bleeding stopping (apart from some very very light brown when I wipe every so often) and the increasing HCG, it’s getting my hopes up (despite me REALLY not wanting to get my hopes up).

One half of me is hoping for a miracle, but the other half is thinking:

• the bleeding stopped quite swiftly because the progesterone pessaries are potentially making me “retain” the pregnancy despite it not being viable.

• my hcg is only still rising because I have retained product.

• could this be a partial molar pregnancy? Given the rising HCG and the bleeding?

All of those points are me guessing, as my medical knowledge is 0.

So grateful for any opinions / views / similar experiences. Fully aware none of them are necessarily the answer, but I just need some extra thoughts to get me through!!

I'm sorry OP I have absolutely no advice on this for you but thought I'd bump it in so you might get some evening traffic.
Fingers crossed for you x

Thank you so much @ThursdaysMonkey

Well I've no idea, but what I can tell you is that I've had 2 successful pregnancies and had bleeding with both. First was a lot of bright red blood at 11 weeks and seconded was close enough to my period that I initially though I wasn't pregnant. The only reason why I did a pregnancy tests was because the period was light for me (I have very heavy periods) and I didn't get my normal awful period migraine. This made me suspect as I had also no migraine with my first pregnancy.

I've been told a number of times that bleeding while not normal during pregnancy is actually very common. I wish someone had told me that before my first pregnancy as its very worrying when ot happens to you.

I'd br cautiously optimistic OP.

I've read that many IVF pregnancies have bleeding in the beginning

My pregnancy wasn't ivf but I had 2 little bleeds in the first trimester, and all fine

Thank you so much for replying @MigGril. I really hope this is the case with me, too. It’s just the cramps combined with the bleeding that makes it feel so impossible that anything can be growing healthily in there. Thanks again.

Thank you so much @GloriousBlue. That’s really interesting re the bleeding and IVF… thank you.

I have had 8 pregnancies, I have 3 live children. 2 of my miscarriages went to the second trimesters.
i have bled in all my pregnancies and into the second trimester for the ones that went to that point and beyond. There was a difference in the bleeding in the successful pregnancies v unsuccessful pregnancies: pain and amount of blood being the main differences. I also took progesterone in my successful pregnancies. From my own experiences, I always knew deep down when I was having a miscarriage, especially after having experienced a few. You have done all the right things and there is nothing you can do at this point, only put up with the agonising waiit. I hope this provides you some hope as I can appreciate you have already been through a lot with IVF.

They can check for molar pregnancy by testing the retained product and blood tests on you, I think.

Thank you @Mumsie2024 . Wow, you’ve really been through it. Thank you for sharing and I’ll be clinging on to that bit of hope.

Thank you @CottageGoblin. So I think I read the earliest they can “spot” a molar / partial molar on a scan is 8 weeks. So this is stressing me out in itself given I’ve still got 1.5 weeks until that point. Thank you.

Best of luck. They say for parenthood the days are slow but the years are fast. We have been through a long journey to have kids but when I look back time has flown. You may find that too.
be kind to yourself and try to distract your mind from it if you can (I know that’s hard to).

I know a number of people who have had bleeding in early pregnancy who have gone on to have healthy successful pregnancies.

Might your IVF clinic do you and extra reassurance scan? We were lucky to get a few extra scans when I started spotting but I don’t know whether that was normal or just the amazingly kind nurse at our clinic.

Good luck, try to be very kind to yourself. Either you are growing a human, or you are recovering from a pregnancy loss - and in either case you need to rest and be gentle with yourself.

Thank you @User236792. Unfortunately my IVF clinic were really quite unhelpful… so sounds like you found a very kind nurse!

Thank you so much.

I like you, @IVFjourney12 have also found my ivf clinic not the most helpful with our loss. So I hear you

In 2022 I had a positive test then straight after kept having brown spotting, sore back, etc that unfortunately led to a miscarriage.

I'm 17dp5dt (FET) today and have just started having brown spotting so naturally I just think back to 2022 and I can't get it out of my head it being bad news. I'll be contacting my clinic first thing in the morning

Sorry to hear this @CottageGoblin. It’s so disappointing given IVF is such a huge thing to go through and support from the clinic is key!

Good luck @Goodday4789, hope you get some positive news.

Can you book a private scan in for the end of next week? You should be able to see a heartbeat on a transvaginal scan by 5+6/6 weeks which may help.

Tbh you’d be better just waiting the 8 days for the hospital to scan you, because if it is bad news, OP is still likely to be made to wait.

@SleepDeprivedButAlive Unfortunately most private places local to me won’t scan you if you still have bleeding / any spotting.

@IVFjourney12 Having had a molar pregnancy and having no idea what it was, I would say that there is no point worrying yourself. I know it's awful but you need to be patient and wait for the next scan. Also, google is not your friend here!

Thanks @AnotherStory23 and sorry to hear this. You’re right, Google has made this torturous wait even more torturous. Everyone keeps saying a molar / partial molar is really rare, but they also all said that to me when I knew my pregnancy was ectopic before it was officially confirmed…
I’m just panicking because my high HCG, horrendous nausea and bleeding all seem to be pointing towards molar / partial molar… but you’re right, either way I’m not going to have an answer until my scan… and even then Google (🫣) tells me that a molar / partial molar can’t be diagnosed until 8 weeks anyway. So I probably won’t even get an answer at my scan as I’ll only be 7 weeks….!

How are you getting on OP? Ok I hope.

Ah thank you so much for checking in @Mumsie2024. So I had a scan at 7 weeks and to my disbelief, there was a baby and a heartbeat!! Still not sure I’ve fully acknowledged it as I was in total disbelief. Felt like a miracle. So so happy.

Of course, however, having had a missed miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy in the past, I’m now onto my next panic, as weeks 5-7 my symptoms were so full on, with severe nausea all day every day; then after my scan at 7 weeks all the symptoms decreased hugely. So I’m now freaking out that I’ve had another missed miscarriage (as this exact thing happened with my symptoms when I had the mmc previously). Have booked another scan for 9 weeks (this Friday) to see….

Thank you so much again for all the info and for checking in on me. Really appreciate it. X