Dating scan and GP made me feel terrible....

[BlaBla80]

Hi all!

So I am 36, found out randomly I was pregnant on Monday. My GP sent me for a dating scan as my periods have been a mess lately, was abdominal scan (no internal) and there was a sac and a yolk sac only. They measured the gest sac as 6wk 4days.

Now I did a test on the 17th feb which was negative so I have gotten pregnant since then, making me maximum 6 weeks from that, maybe 7 not sure as it was a hormone blood test, not sure if you can get a false neg with those I.e if I maybe conceived a few days before?

Anyway I went to the GP and she was really rude, said there was only a small chance of the pregnancy being viable as no heartbeat or feral pole was seen?

I'm so down about this, and don't understand? I've also been niggily and crampy all days today, mainly in the lower back but it's really worried me what the gp said! Pic of my scan below - anyone any info or ideas?

Had my first blood result back and hcg is 39,000

I totally understand how worrying this is for you. What did the sonographer say? Have you an appointment to go back in a week to check?
TBH I'm no expert and I'm sure others will be able to come and advise.

The sonographer said it was unlikely to see a heartbeat, and everything was ok, the scan was marked normal - no abnormalities seen, it's this GP that has worried me

Anyone please?

The only way to know for sure is to have a follow up scan 10-14 days after the first.
It fits with your dates and may well be viable but there is no way of knowing until more time has passed.
Fingers crossed

Fingers crossed. This article makes it sound as if your dates put it on the cusp: if you were any further on then not seeing a fetal pole or embryo with heartbeat would be bad, but at 6 weeks might be quite normal. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/uog.33/asset/33_ftp.pdf?v=1&t=j0nkiqnx&s=e75eb94e14352ef8b46cab10b9fe11acb6f4e8fc

If you aren't sure about your dates then I think you can be cautiously optimistic. Did they say how large the sac was? What measurement was giving them 6+4?

I don't think you can conclude much from the negative pregnancy test in mid February except that you weren't 3.5 weeks + by then, i.e. enough to show on a test. You could already have ovulated by then and been positive on a test a few days later (so you could have been 3 weeks pregnant on Feb 17th, which would make you 8 weeks now). But hopefully you didn't ovulate until later and are only 6 weeks or so now. Did you have any signs of ovulation?

Very hard to get a completely accurate estimation of the sac size when it is so tiny, so I think you will just have to go back for another scan next week. Look after yourself, OP. Early pregnancy is so maddening.

Thanks hopsalong- the 6w 4d is from measuring the sac, but this was a tummy scan only...my bloods put me at 6wks roughly.

I did ask for an internal scan to be told it makes no difference which I think is rubbish.

This was the scan info - measurements

Internal scan definitely makes a difference! I always had an early scan at about 6 weeks due to my medications and it always ended up as needing the internal one to find anything.

That scan has your name on it, OP.

At 6 weeks, I had an internal scan and heart beat was seen. They didn't switch to external scans until 8 weeks with me and the heart beat could be seen then too. Early pregnancy was so much harder emotionally than I ever thought it would be

My scan looked identical at pretty much to the day when I was pregnant (I was bleeding so they needed to check if I was miscarrying). The lovely consultant was very positive and 2 weeks later there was a clear heartbeat. I now have a healthy 5 year old. It's a long, awful wait until the next scan but don't give up hope. With hindsight that was my favourite scan as I thought she was gone and it was just wonderful to see her hanging on.

My scan was internal too, so for that to be external it's a good scan.

Thanks everyone for all the replies

I had a private scan at 6+5 and externally they couldn't really see anything. Internally they picked up at heartbeat so it definitely makes a difference.

I'd be tempted to wait a week and then pay for a private scan if you can. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing for definite how things are progressing until a bit of time has passed. At 7+4 they should be able to see a heartbeat if all ok.

The GP sounds spectacularly unhelpful. I would definitely see someone else going forward. Good luck.

I think your GP was definitely out of line and unnecessarily negative. The sac is NOT yet big enough (without a fetal pole) to be talking of pregnancy failure. According to this site, it would need to be about 2.5 cm to diagnose that, and you do have a yolk sac which is a good sign. radiopaedia.org/articles/mean-sac-diameter

I guess you're creeping into the area (1.6-2.5mm) where you'd want the start of the embryo to appear, so if I were you (but I'm pretty paranoid and spend money freely on these things) I would go and have a private internal scan in the next few days. Good luck!

I had something similar, I had no periods for 3 months so when I found out I was pregnant I assumed I was 3 months along, was booked in for a scan.

The sonographer said that there was only a Sac, not even a fetal pole or anything and advised me to come back in a few weeks. All was well with my pregnancy. Obviously I can't say the same will happen for you but it is common to not see a baby or heart beat early on.

Generally you don't see /hear a heart before 6/4 -7w

Usually the scan lady would say come back in few days /weeks time to detect the heart

I had a scan at think 5/6 as clinic (ivf) said to have one

Saw sac and pole but no heart. She said it was too early

Scan clinic said pointless having before 7w as then worry and have to come back anyway

Sure all is fine

Go back after 7w

Thank you all so much

That crampy period pain feeling is what implantation can feel like. I had what I thought was 2 weeks of period pain and it turned out to be the start of a perfectly normal pregnancy.

It's lower back niggily pain more than anything...it's amazing what you forget from previous pregnancies haha! Hoping it's normal

Should also add I'm in QLD Australia - and medical care is very different...I actually miss the uk for the nhs.

A bit of an update, my quantitative bloods came back as
Thurs 11am - 39,000
Sat 11am - 47500

Doc still not happy though so I have a scan booked for tomorrow at 1pm...

Good luck!

I had a scan at 6.5 weeks which showed nothing-just an empty sack. They said I was 5 weeks tops (which was confusing as I was sure of my dates).

I had to go back 2 weeks later (which having bleeding ) and was 8.5 weeks on the dot. Don't give up hope.