HCG levels rising, progesterone low, nothing on scan - anyone else?

[Muser]

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced what I'm going through at the moment.

Last period was just before Christmas. Bang on cue in January I got what I thought was a period, but shorted than normal. Then a week later I started spotting again. Had this the previous month as well and recognised it as a very early miscarriage. Did a test, sure enough it was positive.

Went to EPU and had a blood test. HCG was 137 and progesterone level 8. 48 hours later HCG was 257 and pg was 7. I was told the low pg level suggested a failing pregnancy. By this point I'd stopped spotting. The spotting had always been very light, nothing I needed liners for.

The EPU asked me to come back in a week, so I went in yesterday for another blood test. My HCG levels are now 1300 but progesterone is still very low (not sure how low, it doesn't say on the notes they gave me).

Because my HCG levels are over 1000 they booked me in for a scan, which I had today. The scan shows nothing. No sign of pregnancy in the uterus and no sign of an ectopic (which they were worried about). The only thing they found was 2 cysts on my ovaries (which are nothing to worry about).

Nurses don't know what's going on but said they are going to keep monitoring me as they are concerned about ectopic. My progesterone levels are so low that a viable pregnancy is not an option. But my HCG levels keep going up.

I have to go back again on Sunday for another blood test, and will get scanned again if my HCG goes over 1500.

I am so confused at the moment as I just don't know what my body is doing. I just wanted to know if anyone else here has had a similar experience so I know that at some point it ends! I know this isn't going to end happily, but I just want to get on with trying to conceive again.

[Muser]

Just bumping this.

[Muser]

Looks like this is just me. I'm going to update in case anyone else finds themselves in this situation and is looking for a shared experience.

So, after the scan that showed nothing I had yet another blood test yesterday. My HCG had increased by 60%, which although not doubling is within the healthy range. The shock result though was my progesterone shot up to 28.

The hospital don't know what's going on and can't explain my results. It's still more likely to be a failing pregnancy or an ectopic than anything else. But I'm being scanned again on Wednesday to see if anything appears.

I am a medical weirdo.

[InTheZenGarden]

Really sorry to hear you're going through this.

I had a "pregnancy of unknown location" in 2007. Scanned at 6 weeks as I had bleeding, had thickened uterus lining but nothing in there. Nothing in tubes on scan. But HCG was doing similar things to yours - going up, but not doubling, which made them suspect ectopic (progesterone was never mentioned, don't think they tested that). I was admitted and monitored and eventually (medical emergencies meant I waited 3 days ) had a laparoscopy, which confirmed the pregnancy definitely wasn't in my tubes.

So, it was somewhere in my abdomen, it didn't make the leap from ovary to fallopian tube

At the time I too felt like a medical wierdo, no one else seemed to have had this.

I miscarried naturally, about a week later.

Sorry this isn't positive news. But thought it might help to hear from someone else who's been through it.

Hope you get through this all OK x

[Muser]

Thank you, it does help to hear from someone else.

I'm not expecting positive news, I've been prepared from the beginning for a miscarriage. I'm just hoping it's not an ectopic. Hopefully we will know for sure on Wednesday.

[AnyFucker]

I have no experience but I just wanted to say good luck to you and stay realistic as the news doesn't sound good.

Sorry you are going through this worrying time. x

[InTheZenGarden]

For what it's worth (and you're probably not looking this far ahead yet, or want to think about it), I went on to get pregnant with DD 3 months later (had taken a year to get pg first time) and am now 10 weeks pregnant with DC2.

I got early scans with both pregnancies, to check they were in the right place.

Sorry if you don't want to be told this yet, I remember all too clearly how awful it was to be told "oh well, I'm sure you'll get pregnant again soon", when I was still grieving for the baby that I had lost. But I was terrified when I did get pregnant (and even when I was ttc) that it would be in the wrong place again.

Hope things go OK at the scan x

[Muser]

This is my second mc in as many months, so I am ambivalent about the prospects of getting pregnant again quickly! I know 2 isn't enough to be recurrent, but it doesn't fill me with hope for next time.

And I need this one to be over first. Which as I've had no bleeding for over a week, continuously well rising HCG and no pain it doesn't seem to be in a hurry to do. But at some point we have to reach a resolution.

[rainbowdays]

Muser - I hope that your scan today turns out to show not a m/c but a progressing pregnancy, there are stories of women having slow-rising hcg and things being fine. As for the scans, if you have a tilted uterus it can make it difficult to see the pregnancy sometimes. I have had that recently, (following 5 miscarriages!), they even kept me in hospital with suspected ectopic due to failing to be able to see the pregnancy on the scan with hcg levels over 3000. Turns out that it was in the right place and even though 3 different doctors hunted for it one day and could not find it, the following day yet another doc found it. So it can happen. I hope this is the case for you too. I will be waiting for your update later hopefully.

[AnyFucker]

please update if you can x

[Muser]

Nothing good on the scan today. They've concluded that one of my cysts is probably the ectopic pregnancy, apparently it doesn't look quite right. I'm being treated for ectopic pregnancy and getting dosed with Methotrexate tomorrow.

I knew it wasn't going to be a happy ending but I was hoping for a blighted ovum rather than an ectopic. We're now banned from trying again for 3 months.

[AnyFucker]

awww, so sorry x

[InTheZenGarden]

So sorry muser, was keeping my fingers crosssed for you all day yesterday

[Tabitha1994]

Hi everyone.

I know this thread hasn’t been posted on in a long time but I wondered if anyone can help.

I believe I am around 8 weeks pregnant. I had quite a bit of light bleeding over a few weeks at first, and passed a clot around 2.5 weeks ago. My doctors have been absolutely rubbish. They tried to do a blood test on me but I have such a bad phobia that they couldn’t get any blood and I was passing out and throwing up. So they did urine tests on me to calculate my hcg.
It came back that over 3 days it had gone from 420 to 1100, so told me that I had not had a miscarriage. I went back to being excited hoping everything was over.

We booked a private scan which I had yesterday, but they can’t find anything on the scan. No sac, no baby. Nothing in my overies. I’ve been referred to the EPU for blood tests 😫. What is going on? I did a pregnancy test yesterday too which was positive. How can my body say I’m pregnant but there be no baby on the scan? Anyone else had this?

[SLR1982]

Hi @Tabitha1994

I'm really sorry to read about the distressing situation you're in. It's horrible being stuck in such limbo not knowing what's going on in your body.
I'm similarly in limbo and struggling.
I visited the EPU this morning for a scan and HCG test. I started bleeding yesterday afternoon alongside some quite nasty cramps which resulted in me passed a small amount of tissue and then the bleeding diminishing and stopping this morning.
The sonographer couldn't see a gestational sac on the scan this morning (I'm 5 + 3) and confirmed what I had suspected that it was very likely a miscarriage as it should be possible to identify the sac by week 5. My ovaries are never visible on scans as my AMH is 0.4 (I've an autoimmune condition that wreaked havoc on my ovaries and eggs) and I've literally no eggs left in them so they sneak up into my abdomen. Sonographer couldn't rule out EP - but as this was an IVF donor pregnancy it's pretty unlikely the blastocysts migrated up that far. Took my blood, go back on Monday for a repeat blood and confirmation on Tuesday afternoon of what my HCG is doing.
I called the IVF clinic after EPU visit to talk to them about stopping all the drugs I am taking. It was a real head explosion conversation where the nurse told me to remain in bed for the weekend lying on my left side and to continue taking all the drugs until I've solid confirmation on Tuesday of reducing HCG. That it could be too early for the sac to be visible on US and that bleeding is very common in early stages,
It kinda feels like they're filling my head with false hope. I have been taking HPT and have noticed a reduction in the clarity of the positive line. I know it's not an exact science, but it does make me believe that my HCG is dropping, that, alongside a significant reduction/stopping of all the symptoms I was getting.
Waiting is just the hardest thing to do in these situations. Although all my friends and family are great - none of them have experienced anything like this before so it's difficult for them to know what to say.
Sending you positive wishes. You're in my thoughts.x