Read online that internal scans can cause miscarriage?!

[Maedoula]

So whilst in one of my googling sessions I came across an old post by a lady who swears that after she had an internal scan she had a miscarriage. I then googled into this further and turns out quite a lot of women have said that they've miscarried a day or 2 after having the scan, or when they've gone to their next scan they been told their baby stopped growing on the exact day they had their previous scan.

Is this just a load of hot air or could it actually happen...Really worried now...

Most pregnancies end in miscarriage: those that require early scans more so. That’s unfortunately the truth of it. No link to internal scans.

Unless there has been a proper scientific study and research process it is bollocks. As previous poster saiid - The need for internal scans only arises if there is already a problem with the pregnancy so logically miscarriage would have been very likely anyway.

A midwife told me to direct all scary questions to a midwife, nurse, or doctor, instead of googling because eventually any pregnancy related search will just needlessly scare the crap out of me.

Yeah I kinda think that too...but the only thing that got me was being told your baby stopped growing on the exact day that you had the scan...Then my mind started wondering crazy and thinking maybe sometimes the nurses can be quite rough and prod quite hard against the uterus...I'm probably putting my mind into overtime now....

It us a coincidence. Miscarriages are most likely to happen during the earlier stages of pregnancy when scans take place most frequently. As for babies no longer growing. Most likely the scan day when they are told that the baby stopped growing is the first scan hence the only data t hey have. The baby could have stopped growung days or even weeks before that first scan but they only days they have tells them that there was no growth after the date of the first scan. It doesn't takr a genius to figure that out.

People tend to have an early scan if there is a fear of mc or worries about the pg. This means they may be higher risk and more likely to mc anyway.
They won't be rough on an internal scan in a way that could cause mc. The cervix is shut.
If this caused mc then anyone who ever had sex in pg would miscarry.

Just to be clear. Patient is told "there was no more groeth after the date of your first scan' and misunderstood that to mean that that was the day the baby stopped growing.

I'm a midwife, I've had 3 miscarriages and 2 successful pregnancies. If I'd have seen any research-based evidence of this, I would never have had transvaginal scans. The first two pregnancies were non-viable at the time of the scans, one miscarriage was spontaneous and I had quite a few TV scans with my healthy pregnancies. I really wouldn't pay any attention to what these people are telling you. As PPs have said, it's coincidental that women have miscarried after these scans.

I just had an internal scan last night, I don't physically see how the process could cause miscarriage. It will be coincidence which is unfortunate but as others said going for an early scan at suggests an increased risk is already considered. I would recommend it if anyone as worries from previous losses xx

The process is slightly like shoving a dildo up there tbh . There’s no way it could cause miscarriage. It isn’t literally being shoved inside your cervix and having a dig around. This is nonsense. They would have to warn you if there was scientific evidence it led to miscarriages.

I had a tv scan and she's in bed next to me currently asking for daddy!

Whenever anything goes wrong it's easier to blame someone else than yourself. The sad fact (and I'm talking from personal experience) is that with a miscarriage your body has let you down somehow, with the grief those women online were feeling they were trying to push some of their anger into someone else rather than accepting their bodies failed them, which is completely understandable but please don't believe them that anything other than those pregnancies being unviable from the start caused it.

Logically, this just doesn’t make any sense. The probe doesn’t even go very far up - maybe 2 or 3 inches? If you’ve had sex since you’ve been pregnant your other half’s penis is (probably ) bigger than that. They use internal scans all the way through the IVF process and I understand those undergoing IVF are told what to avoid - internal scans aren’t one of them.

Internal scans don’t touch the cervix. They don’t increase the risk of miscarriage. Most women who go for early scans do so due to concerns that they have misscarried.

I’ve had early missed miscarriage found during an internal scan.
I then had scans every two weeks from five weeks to ten weeks with my next pregnancy to monitor the pregnancy, this baby is fine.

If you have concerns about internal scans discuss it with your midwife or gp.

As I learnt when having recurrent miscarriages, you can put pretty much any search term "+ miscarriage" into Google and you'll find someone insisting there's a link - including the most innocuous of food stuffs, etc. Which is why, tempting as it is, you (and I!) shouldn't do it! People are desperate to find a 'why' behind miscarriage, and therefore something they can just not do and get a successful pregnancy next time, but the sad truth is that no one has any clue why most miscarriages happen, but it's certainly nothing in the control of the woman.

Had one with all mine and all fine. There’s no way sound waves bouncing off a baby will damage them. Take into consideration all the waves in the modern world we walk through constantly, for phones and WiFi and every other signal - way more likely to do something than an ultrasound, which still won’t cause any damage

Unfortunately most women who require an internal scan in early pregnancy are already at higher risk of having a miscarriage or having a threatened miscarriage therefore I suspect this is how the link arises rather than the scan actually causing the miscarriage.
The probe doesn't go into the vagina very far at all (less far than if you have intercourse) and doesn't touch the cervix so it would be very unlikely it would cause a miscarriage.

In the nicest possible way what you have read is an utter load of crap :) It's as true as reading something on line about the earth being flat.
People who experience miscarriages often look for ways of explaining and making sense of stuff after the event. It's natural to think oh perhaps it's because of x or y reason and then to conflate it with something that is completely unconnected. And as pp said, if you had an internal scan (aside from something like ivf where it's routine to have early internal scans), then it was probably due to there being a concern and thus a higher risk of miscarriage. I have had maybe 50 internal scans due to IVF and infertility and they don't go anywhere near your cervix or do anything that would remotely trigger a miscarriage! Please don't be scared if you have to have one, they are totally harmless (if a bit weird to get used to the first few times).