12 week scan - useful info for ladies who have had bleeding

[panicnotanymore]

I have just returned from my 12 week scan, and I was lucky enough to see an experienced obstetrician. It is really worth paying for this if you can.

I have experienced periodic bleeding to date, a few times heavy and bright red, and he was able to show me a second egg sac belonging to a lost twin that I miscarried at the start. Apparently losing a twin is much more common than is realised, and the second site often bleeds without causing any risk to the viable remaining twin. It is a huge relief to know that although I will probably have a few more bleeds before it shrinks away, they will not be anything to panic about. Many sonographers miss this, so if you have unexplained bleeding you may be in the same boat.

He also had the time and experience to be able to confirm I did not need a blood test or CVS test for Down's, based on measurements alone. I am 39, and would be automatically be assessed as high risk under the standard procedure. I am very relieved, as I was worried about the miscarriage risk from CVS.

panicnotanymore. Congratulations on your good news. It is very insulting and untrue to say that many Sonographers would miss a second sac- simply Not true. Many people dabbling in Ultrasound without proper training and qualifications Might- a Sonographer is an expert in Ultrasound and would not. I do hope you have a positive outcome but it is I feel slightly fool-hardy for the Obstetrician to give such assumptions based on the measurements alone.

Pleased all is well & useful info thank you

Sorry andy, didn't mean to cause any offence. I have had 2 previous scans that did not pick up the egg sack, so it was missed by two qualified sonographers.

One suggested I had lost a twin, but that was based on my telling her I had had what I thought was a clotty period. She said the later bleeds were 'unexplained'.

The scan was very detailed, and his error rate is less than 1 in 50,000. I would rather go with those odds than the 1 in 100 miscarriage rate post CVS.

He looked at a lot of different things, and took a lot of measurements, putting my risk of Downs at 1:1000. The risk for my age is 1:118. A blood test would not give any further info, and might give a false negative slant due to the presence of the second sack. A CVS would not be recommended for those odds. I didn't put all that in my post as I didn't think anyone would be interested in all but the bit that might be relevant to them.