Super high hormones but no pregnancy? Can anyone help?

[Honeymint]

Hey everyone, I’ve had a terrible week and I’m really hoping someone has some experience or advice to share here.

I had some bleeding last week so was told to go to A&E, there they took bloods but told me they couldn’t send me to the gynae ward as it’s being used for corona patients. So I had a scan booked for the next day.

At the scan I was told my hormone levels were just above 49000 so everything should be fine. But when the scan started, the doctor said she didn’t know what she was seeing and sent for another doctor to get a second opinion. They argued about it between themselves for a bit, one told me there was no visible sack but she thought I had an ectopic attached to the side of my ovary. The other said it was just a cyst, not an ectopic.
They said they’d have to admit me and get a third opinion then they may have to remove the tube in the morning.

Then right before I was admitted a third doctor showed up and said he agreed it was a cyst, but at 6 weeks and with a hormone level so high they’d expect to see a sack.
There was a patch of thick cells at the back of my womb so I have to go in for a ‘womb evacuation’ on Wednesday. Apparently I’d usually be unconscious for this but since they didn’t want to put me in the ward with the COVID patients I’ll have to have it while awake. I’m terrified.

So in one day I went from thinking I was pregnant to finding that I either have an ectopic, a molar or something worse.

Please, does anyone have any experience with high hormone levels but no pregnancy? Or molar? Or ectopic? Or even a womb evacuation without anaesthetic? These things all have such low odds, I can’t believe this is happening ☹️

Oh my goodness OP! I haven't experienced any of this but didn't want to read and run.
I really hope everything goes OK for you.

Thanks Sel x

One thing I’m particularly worried about is I couldn’t take anyone in with me yesterday and I can’t take anyone on Wednesday due to everything that’s going on.

@Honeymint I know it's hard. This would be tough to go through anyway so to have all this added stress is just awful.
If it helps though, I've just had a 3 day stay in hospital with no visitors allowed and it was actually OK. The staff were all lovely and really looked after me.
Try not to worry about things that are out of your control.
Sending lots of positive thoughts your way x

@sel2223 That is reassuring. I suppose I can only hope for the best and see what happens. I hope everything is okay with you by the way!

Sorry to hear that you’re going through this, it all feels like quite a shock at first.

I had a missed miscarriage, so ended up having surgery to remove it. This was before COVID, but I didn’t take my partner - was in and out of the hospital in about 5-6hours. I just took something to read and some podcasts and it was fine, really simple (in comparison to the pain I was in before).

I hope everything goes well for you

Thank you Cupcakes, podcasts sound like a great idea, I’ll try to remember to bring some headphones.

I’ve been reading that ectopic usually coincide with lower hormone levels, I don’t know how true that is but it makes me feel a little hopeful at least. (although I suppose that would mean it’s more likely to be a molar and I don’t know how afraid to be of that..)

Sorry you’re going through this. Can’t add any wisdom as to what it might be, hopefully after you have the evac then the lab results from that tissue will provide some clarity. Did you know you were pregnant? Had you been feeling unwell otherwise?
It sounds like they are taking a wise approach, it may be that you end up needing a keyhole surgery to look at the area on your tube/ovary but it’s good that they haven’t gone straight in for that - hopefully it’s just a little cyst and you may be able to avoid losing a tube. The lab results may take several days - sometimes they’ll be able to give you more info straight away and sometimes it’s just carrying on the waiting.
Don’t be worried about the surgery being done without a general anaesthetic - that’s fairly common where I am. They may offer you a couple of alternatives (sedation, and/or a local anaesthetic block to the cervix) as well as pain relief. Hopefully they’ve explained to you - it’s generally a quick procedure, 5-10 mins, very gentle dilatation of the cervix without using anything sharp, and then gentle suction, only a few mm wide. Not sure if they are planning to use a camera (hysteroscopy) as well? That’s also very narrow and doesn’t add much time. Usually people feel cramping, but the most common reaction is “oh, was that it?” As in it’s all ok.
I can tell you a bit about molar pregnancy and other things if you like, but I think it’s actually TMI for now - you just have to focus on getting through the next few days and then move forward with whatever diagnosis it is. Fingers crossed it’s a non viable intrauterine pregnancy and removing the tissue brings the hcg falling quickly, without any need to worry about ectopic/molar. X

@TenThousandSpoons0 thanks so much for your reply, it really made me feel better before I went in for the procedure and I really appreciated it!

I thought I’d leave an update, since I always find them helpful when I find old posts. I went in for the womb evac early on Wednesday and had to wait around a bit while the medication took effect.
Then I went into the procedure room and was given gas and air, which I’d never had before. It helped to take slow, deep breaths. The first part hurt a little, but when they finished a few minutes later I hadn’t realised they’d started the evac bit yet. So although it was uncomfortable, the whole thing took less than 5 minutes so it wasn’t terrible.
It did hurt a lot afterwards, like bad cramps. I couldn’t stop shaking, but apparently that’s normal. The nurses brought me custard creams and a drink which was a nice distraction.
( I hope this helps anyone who finds this thread in future!)

As for the results, I still have to wait and see. My hormones were 49000 5 days before the evac and were 54000 two days after, so I’m assuming it went up and is now coming down again?
I had two more scans after this where one doctor thought I still had an ectopic and a second insisted it was a cyst. So that’s 3 for cyst and 2 for ectopic. I’m not sure whether to still be worried or not, but I’m trying to take my mind off of it with snacks!

Glad to see it went ok.
Fingers crossed for the next results.