What differentiates spotting from bleeding and when should I be worried?

[Happysurprise]

At about 3am on Tuesday I woke with a tummy ache (like a dull period pain) and went to the loo to discover blood - not loads of it but it was bright red and fresh looking. I went to my doctor first thing and they refered me to have a scan. The scan revealed a heart beat which is good news and just a small cyst on my ovary. There are 3 things concerning me:

• the hormone level tests are very low and consistent with 3 weeks pregnant. Has anyone else had low hormones and a successful pregnancy?
• the scan measurement said the pregnancy was around 2 weeks less advanced (whilst my ovaluation might have come out of sych DP would have to have supersonic sperm for it to survive that long). Has anyone had a scan that is this much out?
• I am still getting intermittent clotting / bleeding - is this normal or should I go back to the early pregnancy unit?

I guess I am worried that the baby is small, I am bleeding and the hormone levels are low because something is wrong because its not developing properly.

Hi sorry your going through this how stressful. How far should you have been at the scan and what did they date you to be? In my expiriences early scans have always been out for me but once I had 12wk scan it got moved back up again. And regarding the hormone levels, what was your last reading? It's not so much the reading thats important, its weather they are doubling every 48-72hrs.

I've had bleeding in all nt pregnancys dc1&3 (3 been my current pregnancy) it was early pregnancy, dc1 was bright red and on and off till 12wk. Dc2 started at 22wk bright red, it was down to a cervical errosion, have they checked you for anything like that?

Xx

Hi becky, thanks for your reply.

I worked out I was around 8 weeks. The scan said 6wks. I read that they are only out by 5 days max - do you know if that is right? How far out were your scan dates?

I don't know what they checked for the lady didnt give much away and I was in a bit of a daze because of lack of sleep and relief that there was a heart beat. I always think "silly person, why didnt they ask the consultant X Y X" but ended up quite useless myself!

The hormone levels were 3750, at 8wks it should be 64,600-116,310. Even if somehow I have miscalculated and I am 6wks it should be 11,230-25,640. Its quite a big difference - they didnt take 2 tests, however I am booked in for one on next week (the sickle cell etc, initial test) so I will ask them to do a hormone check then to compare.

Its good to know that people have had the bleeding and its all been OK and seeing the little heart beat is keeping me positive.

thanks again, and let me know about the scan & how far yours was out. Congrats on your 3rd! How is it going so far?

I was in the same situation, had heavy bleeding so had a scan I was expecting to see a 10.5 week baby but when I looked at the screen there was nothing there, scanner lady couldn't find anything either my heart stopped, I got a internal scan and it turns out I was only 6.5 weeks along !!! everything was fine, he's now a healthy 11 month old who is currently still awake!!

Dc1 was out by a week to the 12wk one and Dc3 by 5 days to the 12wk one. Ahh yea I see what you mean, I had none took at 5+2 it was 2100, they wasnt going to re take it, so I booked a doctors appointment myself and spoke to gp about my concerns, they got retook at 6+3 and had gone to 36000 by that point.
Are they going to re scan you? Fingers crossed you are just a lil less than thought, it happens loads.

All is well so far now Thankyou, I have a gender scan booked tomorow. Too impatient lol
Xx

I will definitely be doing a gender scan too :) All the pretty things that can be bought in boy/girl colours is too tempting to delay!

Thanks for your reassurance, I dont think the next scan will be until the standard 12 wk one, since they found the heart be to them everything is OK. Its just me that is worrying because the dates seem too far out and combined with the low hormones and bleeding I am thinking the worse.

Must try to be more positive!