Early scan results - left me more confused and worried

[Ginger73]

I had a little brown discharge at the weekend so GP booked me for an early scan on Tuesday.
First day of my last period was 6th Jan so I had calculated I was 7 weeks. Conception was definitely 19th Jan.
When I had the scan, the lady said I wasn't 7 weeks, it was a couple of weeks less than that, as it was too small. Everything was in the right place, there was a yolk sac etc, but no heartbeat yet and I have to go back in two weeks.
My dates are categorically correct, and now I am convinced that the baby stopped growing 2 weeks ago and that is why they could not see a heartbeat. I was slightly flustered at the scan and didn't get the clarification I should have done.
Am I just being mad? It is my first baby (totally unplanned), I'm 41 (prone to a bit of anxiety at the best to times) and I cannot stop worrying something is horribly wrong, despite the fact that none of the medical professionals seem overly concerned.

How are you so sure of the conception date? Was that the only time you had sex?

Do you understand the whole dates thing? The foetus age is always different to when you had sex due to the way they measure it. I know it baffled me for a while to start with. And of course the egg wasn't necessarily released when you had sex. All that stuff complicates it. I don't recall the ins and outs now but I recall it being very confusing and not what I expected

It can take up to 10 days between sex and conception you know... sperm are longer lived than you think. So knowing what day you had sex doesn't necessarily indicate when you conceived.

Brown blood is usually less of a concern than bright red bleeding so I'd try not to let it worry you too much. Just try and get through the next 2 weeks without stressing yourself out too much and you'll have a definite answer. It's hard from them to see anything at early scans so don't panic too much based on what you've been told today

Unfortunately, sex is such a rarity that I do know the exact date the action happened!
But is the date thing that is confusing me a lot, and I think as a reasonably intelligent, well educated woman, I should be able to understand such a concept, but the anxiety and panic is just melting my brain and making me completely freak out. I don't have friends or family with babies, so the whole pregnancy thing is a terrifying mystery.
Anyway, it has really helped me to just share it, and thank you for taking time to respond. I already feel a little better.

Glad you're feeling a bit better. I am pretty very intelligent and educated too and really really struggled understanding the dates thing. It was through reading on here I eventually understood so have a look round threads.

And I had brown discharge, and an early scan, and it was fine. Just waiting for him to wake up from his nap.

My last period was also jan 6th, I had a scan on Monday when I'd worked out I was 7 weeks but measurements made me only 6 weeks. It can all depend if you ovulate late in your cycle or on how long implantation takes. It's impossible not to worry but it isn't an exact science! Good luck.

You are calculating your dates correctly (from 1st day of last period) and if you know you ovulated about 2 weeks later then that should correlate with the scan to within a few days. Sometimes if you have very long cycles and ovulate late then conception will happen much later than the day 14 that this method assumes. When did you first get a positive pregnancy test? You would have to have been at least 10 days post-ov for that to happen. If you got a positive test 3 weeks ago and are only measuring 5 weeks on a scan then that doesn't look good, sorry.
Foetal pole should be visible in the sac at 5-6 weeks, heartbeat normally appears between 6-7 weeks.
I would campaign to get the second scan brought forward to a week interval, it's horrible being in the limbo between scans. A week is plenty of time to see development if there is any.

I'm sorry to sound negative, I've had 4 miscarriages and been in this limbo where dates I am sure of don't correlate to what is seen on the scan several times. It drove me mad that everyone was so non-committal and would not be honest and say it didn't look good. I know women make mistakes with their dates or have unusually long cycles all the time and by the next scan everything is fine, but sadly it is not always the case. Brown discharge can be absolutely normal and nothing to worry about, it's also often the first sign of a missed miscarriage.

I hope you get good news at your next scan.

You could have actually conceived a week after sex so it may be closer than you think.

I have either conceived on the day we had sex (dc3 and has never happened before) or 6 days after we had sex. And when I started charting my "regular" periods there was actually quite a variation with a rogue long/short one every now and again.

I did my first test when I was 3 days late, but that came back as negative. I wasn't concerned, but I did wee all over the stick (who knew aiming wee was so difficult) so I wonder in hindsight if I had just messed it up.
The first positive test was at 6 days late, so just over 2 weeks pre scan.
Bakingtins - I will certainly ring them and push for earlier scan. Good suggestion, thanks.

So you could quite well be 5-6 weeks. Everyone is different of course but I have only ever shown a BFP 14 days after conception when I have got my scan date. Even using First Response. Lots of luck.

Hi there,
I'm in a similar situation to you, LMP on 2 Jan, DTD on 18th and 26th and convinced I OV on 18th as cycle is bang on 30 days, and although I wasn't charting this month I'm sure my dates are correct.

We're awaiting my next scan on Tuesday. My last scan showed a 2mm embryo but no heartbeat, that was when I should have been 7 weeks.

I'm struggling to understand the whole date thing too as by my scans it seems I'm behind :/

Wishing you lots of luck xxx

Thanks Lauraanne. Wishing you lots of luck too xxxxx

I have been emboldened by everyone's supportive words, and information, and have done a little research. I have a retroverted womb, I found out at the scan, and apparently this makes scans a bit harder to read and does often make dating and detecting a heartbeat in early pregnancy more tricky. This, plus all you've shared has helped me feel that although not ideal, it's certainly not hopeless.