Ectopic pregnancy symptoms

[Edisnori]

I got a positive pregnancy test last week. I have been having aching . Started off on my wrists , then my arm and now the muscle near my neck but mostly on my left side , I don't know if it's in the right place for an ectopic ?! My right arm has been aching too. So panicky and feel like I'm reading into every sign:(

Hi op sorry u feel this way. I mean I've never heard of those signs before.
Speak with your GP and explain what is happening x

Hi, I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy with no neck or shoulder pain. My main symptom was rectal pressure/discomfort. (I felt really sore even walking around some days) and I had bleeding.
Some people present with little/no symptoms. If you’re at all concerned, please ask your GP... never feel bad for worrying, it could be life saving!

Thank you for the comment , I have booked an appointment on Monday. Am so tempted to go to A and E but think I'm way too early for a scan and will be wasting their time ...

Try calling EPU in the morning perhaps and see what they say? 5 weeks should be OK for a scan to confirm location of pregnancy. It's shoulder tip pain I was taught to look out for. Like if you look directly at your shoulder, the part you can see.

As I understand it it's not an A&E emergency unless the pain is severe but I'd just try EPU rather than waiting for GP on Monday, that's where they'd send you anyway as they have no ultrasound machine themselves.

Depending on what facilities your local hospital has, I'd be inclined to contact the Early Pregnancy Unit and have a chat with a midwife/obstetrician directly.

In my trust, you can’t self refer to EPU. You have to get referred by your gp/midwife.
Early pregnancy is a minefield as a midwife isn’t interested in you that early on... I ended up seeing an out of hours doctor at 5 weeks as I had one sided pain and bleeding. He told me I was “far too early” to be referred to EPU. Misdiagnosed a kidney infection and told me if the bleeding continued it was likely a miscarriage.

I found it very hard to be taken seriously and get what I needed. It ended up in emergency surgery at nearly 8 weeks. So now I urge people to explore every avenue to get seen and get reassurance as I just believed the drs knew best.

I will try to contact my local EPU today then and push to be seen. The left hand side feels a lot worse . The muscles feel so sore and if I look to my left and down, its definitely in that shoulder tip area :(

I've had 2 ectopics both ruptured

It's a Sunday....A&E don't have the equipment to scan you and the trained sonographers from EPU don't tend to work weekends either. All they will do is book you in for next week

They would only scan you if you were admitted via ambulance or something in an emergency

Shoulder tip pain as a symptom of ectopics is pretty misunderstood - it's caused by internal bleeding reaching the diaphragm and 99% of women will have had other symptoms before it gets to that point. Trust me my tubes rupturing is the most unreal pain i have even felt - literally writhing on the floor, unable to stand or speak or walk kind of pain (and I have a high pain threshold)

Shoulder tip pain is generally the last symptom before you collapse etc. Most ectopics start out with some kind of bleeding (although mine didn't) or one sided pain which starts out as a stitch like pain on one side

I’m 6 weeks today and I’ve got a dull ache in my left side. It doesn’t sit so low down but it’s more across my back up towards my ribs. It’s not pain but it’s something I’m aware of if that makes sense?

I’ve had no bleeding or anything like that so I’m not sure what to do as I don’t have a midwife yet and it’s a bank holiday weekend so I’d assume EPU would be closed today and Monday?

So if it’s ectopic you wouldn’t get shoulder tip pain unless a tube has ruptured. The foetus would need to be bigger than five weeks to be big enough to rupture unless there’s a possibility that you are actually 9/10 weeks, not five. I had severe pain that woke me up the day mine ruptured, but I’d also had dark wine like bleeding on and off for a month. The pain was lower left side from about 3am, so severe that I couldn’t pick up my nine month old. In fact I could hardly stand. The tube didn’t actually ruptured until early afternoon (as I was having a scan when it ruptured).

A doctor confirmed I wasn't pregnant on 11th and then I took a home pregnancy test on the 21st which said I was 1-2 weeks. My app is saying I'm conceived on the 15th and is saying I'm 4weeks and 3 days in so I'm not sure I can be 9 weeks pregnant. But I guess all I can do is try to call EPU in St Thomas's and see if they can speak to me today and monitor my upper back pain?

@AnatomyJane

So if it’s ectopic you wouldn’t get shoulder tip pain unless a tube has ruptured. The foetus would need to be bigger than five weeks to be big enough to rupture unless there’s a possibility that you are actually 9/10 weeks, not five. I had severe pain that woke me up the day mine ruptured, but I’d also had dark wine like bleeding on and off for a month. The pain was lower left side from about 3am, so severe that I couldn’t pick up my nine month old. In fact I could hardly stand. The tube didn’t actually ruptured until early afternoon (as I was having a scan when it ruptured).

Thank you for your response , feels a bit better talking about this and not freaking out in my head only

@ivfgottwins

I've had 2 ectopics both ruptured

It's a Sunday....A&E don't have the equipment to scan you and the trained sonographers from EPU don't tend to work weekends either. All they will do is book you in for next week

They would only scan you if you were admitted via ambulance or something in an emergency

Shoulder tip pain as a symptom of ectopics is pretty misunderstood - it's caused by internal bleeding reaching the diaphragm and 99% of women will have had other symptoms before it gets to that point. Trust me my tubes rupturing is the most unreal pain i have even felt - literally writhing on the floor, unable to stand or speak or walk kind of pain (and I have a high pain threshold)

Shoulder tip pain is generally the last symptom before you collapse etc. Most ectopics start out with some kind of bleeding (although mine didn't) or one sided pain which starts out as a stitch like pain on one side

Thank you for this , that misunderstanding about shoulder tip pain has been giving me sleepless nights :(

I'll call EPU on Tuesday then. Thank you everyone, this has really helped. The pain feels very muscular and sometimes in my biceps. I've spent so many hours recently googling my symptoms and just makes the worrying worse:(

I was sent to a&e by the epu for a suspected eptopic in my last pregnancy, I had sharp left side pains. It was late at night so they couldn't scan me until the next day. They took my bloods which were normal for my dates (8 weeks) but were going to keep me in overnight as a precaution until my scan. They gave me an internal and felt my stomach, the doctor said that if it was eptopic I would of been screaming in pain throughout that which I wasn't it was just uncomfortable so they let me go home and come back for my scan the next day. At my scan baby was fine and in the right place but they saw fluid around my left ovary and put it down to a small cyst bursting the day before which caused the pain.

@jennyt82 your comment kind of reassures me, I’ve got a dull ache that goes from my left side to around my back, and I’ve been feeling my stomach and it doesn’t hurt so I’m hoping it’s a good sign? I’m 6 weeks.

I have had cysts before and went to hospital about three weeks ago, before I took a pregnancy test, and they confirmed I had one and also took a pregnancy test which was negative. But now I've had a positive pregnancy test and had the achy muscles in my upper back area ,also in my biceps. No bleeding but I know that not every ectopic does

I will be honest... I did have pain and went to bed some days... but when I went for my scan and the doctor said “your stomach is full of blood....” and went on to find the ruptured left tube, I was fairly shocked. They wouldn’t let me walk... told me I had to go in a wheelchair! I was like “but I drove 20 miles to get here? I’m fine!” 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️
I’m not suggesting that my reaction was ok, but whilst I knew something was wrong, I rode my horse the day before. I also ran 10 miles in the peaks the weekend prior. It was sore but not so bad it stopped me carrying on... and the more people I’ve spoken to, the more varied it can be.
I think it depends where the pregnancy beds in to how big it can get.
I was 7.5 weeks.
But yes, absolutely, I think shoulder pain is actually less common than people say! Apparently bowel pain is really common and that’s not really talked about. I felt like my insides were squashed up!