Any RMC sufferers to give me advice?

[coffeeX10]

Im a RMC sufferer so now I’m preg again I’m a POAS addict. My tests are very obvious BFPs but they’re not getting darker they’re just staying the same and aren’t as dark as the control line. I’m worried that my cyclogest is keeping me “pregnant” if the pregnancy isnt progressing.
I’m currently 5+1 and have a scan booked at EPU for 6+3, I feel like I’m holding the inevitable at bay, I just can’t understand why they won’t get darker.

As another RMC sufferer I can completely empathise with how you're feeling. It is so, so difficult, your mind is in a constant whirl, and your emotions are all over the place. I know how you feel, and to get through the it myself I had to stop everything - no more POAS, tried very hard not to Google anything, and tried to just sit with the uncertainty. It's not easy. I don't think it means anything if the lines don't get darker, I don't know. But you'll drive yourself crazy trying to guess what's going to happen. There's nothing you can do about the outcome of the pregnancy, all you can do it look after yourself in the interests of looking after your baby. Do the things you can control - folic acid, vitamins, rest, fluids, etc.

I'm sorry you're going through this, it is such a hard thing to get through. I'm pregnant again after 5 miscarriages, I'm (hopefully) 14 weeks and I've found that the endless anxiety hasn't really gone away, but I feel better day to day now that I've learned how to deal with it a bit. Still have bad moments! But my psychologist told me that I'll be just as devastated to lose the baby whether I'm anxious every day, sad every day, or happy every day. You can't really protect yourself from how hard it will be if you do lose the baby, but you can find ways to stay strong and resilient and make each day less of a nightmare to struggle through. I always think of the kids I WILL have in the future and the kind of person I want to be for them, and it helps me.

Keep your chin up, OP xxx

Thanks Salt. I hope I’m not making it “worse” on myself by continuing the cyclogest if the pregnancy has stopped progressing by stopping myself from having a natural miscarriage - no idea why I think that because one of my MCs was a MMC and that wasn’t on progesterone or any other drugs to help sustain a pregnancy. And I know youll be right I’ll be devastated either way I’m just not sure whether I should continue with the pessaries if the hormones don’t seem to be progressing
HUGE Congratulations on your pregnancy xxx

I've never been in that situation before, so I don't know how it feels, bit can imagine the up and down of trying to decide what to do. After my MMCs I always wanted to know as early as possible if it hadn't worked, to avoid uneccesary days/weeks of torment.

Maybe you could ask your doctor for advice? I would probably resign myself to 9 days of waiting and just keep taking the cyclogest in the assumption that the pregnancy is continuing. But if you really can't wait until next week, maybe your GP could measure your HCG levels, and then you'd have some idea of that was going on?

Also, it's very easy for me to say what I would do, but I'm not in your shoes!!

I'm on my fourth pregnancy this year (7 weeks) and also on cyclogest. I was given it by the Coventry miscarriage clinic, and I was - like you - so worried that it would prolong the inevitable that I rung them to ask: they said that it is not the case that progesterone will stop you bleeding if you miscarry. It does stop your uterine lining bleeding, but the pregnancy itself will still bleed if it was going to. I found that really reassuring.

I persuaded my GP to do hcg blood tests when I was four weeks pregnant, and found that reassuring, too - like you, I just wanted to know if things were progressing or if this was already a no-hoper. This is much more reliable than the darkness of lines of tests, so I'd definitely try and persuade the GP to do it (or, since you're already booked into the EPU, they might be willing to order blood tests).

In the meantime, I would definitely keep taking the cyclogest - don't give yourself a decision that you'll obsess over if things do go wrong.

Salt and Lisa THANK YOU honestly I really find it so much more helpful talking it through with ladies who have experienced similar.

Lisa I honestly could not be happier that you’ve told me this, I’m glad I’m not prolonging anything. Coventry was my next step if my RMC consultant wouldn’t have agreed to their same protocol (cyclogest and daltaparin) but luckily he did.

Glad you're feeling a bit better - I was also pleased and a bit surprised (there are so many stories online where people said that progesterone gave them a MMC - but then MMC are sadly common, and women taking progesterone tend to get early scans, so I think people have assumed it was the progesterone when it was something that would have happened anyway). Siobhan Quenby was v clear that the most recent research shows it isn't the case.