What can you see on a 5week scan?

[Tanyelx]

My midwife has just booked me a scan for Thursday. I should be around 5 weeks. She’s done it to try and put my mind at rest after an awful miscarriage.
Will I be able to see anything on a 5 week scan?

I had one at 5+6 and you can see a sort of kidney bean with a halo around it.

Not much. You should be able to see an intrauterine sac and possibly a foetal pole Very unlikely to see a Hb or anything much

Very little. If you can bear it - and I understand if you can't - then I'd try and rebook for 6.5 weeks, when you can see an embryo and heartbeat (as long as your dates are dead on, because a few days earlier you can't!), which is much more reassuring. All they can see at 5 weeks is the sac - towards the end of the week you might see a foetal pole. Unless you're very concerned that it's ectopic (in which case I can understand wanting to confirm its intrauterine) then I don't think it'll help that much, sorry. My local EPU won't do scans before 6 weeks for this reason.

I saw heartbeat as a little white flashing dot. But other friends haven't seen the heartbeat at this stage so I think it's different for everyone

I had a scan at 5+3 to rule out another ectopic pregnancy. We were lucky enough to see a flickering heartbeat.

I saw heartbeat as a little white flashing dot.

Were you near the start of 5 weeks or 5+5 or 6? I thought the heart only started beating about halfway through the fifth week, but am prepared to be corrected!

I'm sorry about your miscarriage, congratulations on being pregnant again. I would strongly reckoned you ask her to cancel t and rebook for 7 weeks. I say this as I had an early scan at 6 weeks due to having had a previous ectopic and all it could tell me was that there was a sac in the right place. I then had another scan later that week (6+4) as I had ivf and they were concerned that a cyst on my ovary could have been the other embryo they put back, so were worried about an ectopic one alongside the uterine one. That part is irrelevant (turned out to be just a simple cyst) but The scan at 6w4d didn't show a fetal pole, but while not a great sign was inconclusive at this stage as there was still time. Rescanned at 7 weeks and confirmed that it had stopped growing at 6 weeks. I'm just at the tail end of miscarrying now, and I swore if we ever get this far again I will refuse a scan pre 7 weeks as that week of limbo was awful - there is nothing conclusive they an tell you before 7 weeks, so unless you have pain which might suggest something wrong, is def wait til 7 weeks. X

As above - in the absence of pain or bleeding I don't think there's much point in getting a scan so early, unless they suspect an ectopic. My EPU said there's no real reassurance before a scan at around 7 or 8 weeks as by then you can measure more accurately, see a heartbeat and risk of miscarriage drops.

I had a very heavy bleed with my daughter at 5 weeks and the scan showed nothing at that point except a gestational sac. I'd had a miscarriage previously so i was devastated - but when I went back a week later we saw a heartbeat.

I agree that it might be better to wait, I think it depends how you think you will react if they can see nothing. I was worried about that as so early you won't know for sure what that means so it just adds more uncertainty in a way. If you think you will be ok (ish!) with that then it may be worth doing. I really hope things go well for you xx

Sometimes nothing or just the sac with it being too small to see anything inside.

Sorry to be negative - but just to prepare you in case things aren't quite as far on as they thought. I don't know if they'd offer a repeat scan in this case? May be worth asking.

I agree 6 or 7 weeks is likely to be better, but your choice.

My other concern would be if they'll be willing to repeat the scan if it looks normal for dates but you can't see much - I really wouldn't want to 'waste' the early scan if that makes sense. I had one at 6+4 but I'd already been told I'd have two (I had the other one today at 8+4) - if they'd only been offering one early scan I would have wanted to 'save' until a little later.

At 5+6 I only saw a sac and fetal pole. No heartbeat yet. I have to say it made my anxiety way worse.

I saw a sac but no heartbeat at 6 weeks. (There was a heartbeat at 9 though).

Fetal pole and sac. Didn’t see heart beat until over 6 weeks +. It was a long few days between these early scans.

You may see only a gestational sac or you may see a gestational sac and a small fetal pole. You won't likely see a heartbeat. I don't think I'd honestly bother with a 5 week scan.

I had an early scan for reassurance with my last pregnancy where baby stopped developing at 5 weeks. If I'd gone at 5 weeks, all would have looked great and normal. But in reality it wasn't. I waited til 8 weeks for the scan and it was obvious that it was a missed miscarriage.

If you want reassurance, I would go for a scan closer to 7-8 weeks.

This time I waited until 8/9 weeks for a reassurance scan as I knew if I went earlier, I’d just want another.

very little. i had one at 7 weeks and it was just a little white blob. hoping for the best for you!