They cant find my baby on my scans!

[KJE3112]

So. Today i am 8w pregnant (deffinately pregnant as all blood tests confirm. But, i have now had 3 scans, all transvaginal, and they cant find my baby.

They were testing me for ectopic but said with my HCG levels its starting to look unlikely its that.

Im due for another scan at 8w5d and hoping to find someone whos had a similar situation who can give me some hope.

Im really hoping they can find a little heartbeat in there somewhere!

Hope all goes well OP

So, still no baby on scan, and now theyre thinking about me terminating. All my other symptoms are normal! Im having a blood test first to check my HCG levels, but theyve told me because they cant see baby they dont think its a normal pregnancy and that i will probably have to terminate. I dont want to! Not until they give me a proper reason other than because we cant see it! What do i do?

All sounds so wierd.

Personally I would keep going and see what happens let nature takes its course. I'd say your continuing and ask for a scan at 10 weeks and then go from there :)
But you need to prepare yourself for the what ifs

I understand that something could possibly be wrong, meaning yes, i would need to terminate. But, the one and only reason they want me to terminate atm is because they cant see on the scan, bloodwork up to date have been fine and ive had normal symptoms. I just feel i want a better reason to end this pregnancy?

Can they admit you to the EPU to further investigate?? I'm baffled as to why they want you to terminate without any other reason? Did they scan externally? Your fallopian tubes?

Silly question perhaps but why are you scanning early? If you were still waiting for your 12w scan there'd be no reason to take any action until then. Keeping everything crossed for you, I hope you can wait a few weeks and things become clearer x

I'm sorry you are going through this @KJE3112.
Honestly your pregnancy sounds like a complete molar pregnancy. Did they mention this to you?
I went through the same at 7 weeks but I miscarried on my own.
Here's the nhs link with some extra info
www.nhs.uk/conditions/molar-pregnancy/

Did you ask about what the damage would be if you waited a few weeks before making a decision?

Personally I think the reason they want you to terminate now is because they can do it the medical route rather than surgical if it's before 9 weeks, so they'd just administer a pessiary and let you pass it naturally.

After 9 weeks you have to go the surgical route, which, if they can't find anything on a scan, might prove difficult because they will need to do a follow up scan to make sure that all the material has been evacuated.

So ultimately I think they're pushing for convenience but also the thing that's going to have the least impact on your body.

Though all procedures should be made with informed consent, and if you have more questions to ask or want to wait more time you're entirely within your right but I would definitely ask questions about whether they believe you're at risk of harm if you wait a few weeks and have another scan.

@Frazzledd they did an external and internal scan, theyve said its definitely in my uterus and everything else looks good

@hemhem i had very light bleeding, which theyve told me can be common, and cramping, which again, theyve told me is a common symptom. Theyre initally what i came in for, but theyre not considering them anymore, just my scans and blood tests.

@Mammyofasuperbaby theyve mentioned it, the nurse said thats what shes concerned about but the supervisor said it sounds very unlikely as im not really showing symptoms for it, like severe sickness, high HCG levels etc

What is there to terminate? How would they? I don’t understand.

@Couchbettato still at hospital atm as theyve told me they want me to stay and wait till they get my blood results back before they make a plan, i have loads of questions i want to ask, and either way im not sure i feel comfortable doing anything today as im on my own and an hours drive away from home...

@ChorizoJacketPotato all tests show im pregnant, so theres deffinately something in my uterus, they just cant see it on the scans, and thats why theyre concerned.

So strange! Hope you're feeling alright OP, fingers crossed for answers.

Op sending big hugs.

Don't make any on the spot decisions today- tell them you need time to think.

It makes no sense to me to terminate something that’s desperately wanted just because they can’t see it yet.

If they’re concerned about a pregnancy of unknown location, what are they going to do?

I absolutely would refuse everything now unless they can give you a clear reason. How would they even do it?

Oh OP, I'm sorry.

Are they considering this a pregnancy of unknown location?

I think you'd want to chat to them about the risks of not doing anything at this point. Are they confident that it's not in your fallopian tubes? Risking rupture there can be risky...

I have no personal experience of molar pregnancies; but I've a friend who has had two, and I don't believe she had any unusual symptoms. She's got four children, so it hasn't affected her ability to have children, but it's been rather stressful for her and I do massively feel for you.

Are you still at the hospital or have you been discharged?

You could, as someone else said, wait until 12 weeks and have your normal scan - presuming that it would still be booked for you, you'd need to check.

But I'd also push for someone to sit down with you and talk through options now, incase there are risks associated with continuing the pregnancy. As someone else said, it could be that they're trying to make it "easier" for you, as before 9 weeks is the "easiest" type of termination. But it could also be that there are potential risks to your body/future fertility etc, and you'd want to make sure you understood those.

I'm so sorry, again I had one scan where they struggled to see a heartbeat and that was horrendous; I can't imagine what this has been like for you.

Im so sorry they are struggling to find baby on scans. Do you know if you have a retroverted (tilted back)womb at all. I have one and its taken time to find baby and really dig around on the internal scans. I hope you get some answers soon x

How are they sure it's in your uterus if they can't see it on scan?

Do you mean they are seeing ‘something’ but just not seeing an actual baby?
Is it a gestational sac they are seeing ?

how worrying and co fusing for you. Take care x

Confusing*

I am guessing (and hoping) that your dates are just wrong and it's too soon to see anything

@Muchmorethan @anotherDayofThis im not sure but shes told me, she cant find baby or any signs of pregnancy, but shes confident its a pregnancy of the uterus...
@abbs1 they very breifly mentioned a double uterus at my last app but havent heard any updates about that
@TakeYourFinalPosition still at hospital, been here for 3 hours now, still waiting for someone i can talk to, but they wont talk to me until my blood results come back, i definitely want to wait, even if its only until next week or something.

This whole experience has been absolutely horrible and so stressful, i just want some answers now.

I’m sorry you’re going though this OP. It is hard and scary. I’ve been in a similar position with them not being able to find a baby when I thought I was about 8/9 weeks. There was a sac there through - do you know if they can see that? They did v detailed scans of my tubes etc to check it wasn’t implanted in the wrong place and I had follow up scans scheduled before they could really talk options. Unfortunately mine didn’t end well a I did miscarry naturally at home about 1.5 weeks later. I really hope that this isn’t the outcome for you, but maybe prepare yourself at the same time as hoping for the best

For now my advice would be to ask all of your questions and try to understand the risks of doing nothing for now with a re-scan scheduled for a week or so. While miscarrying at home wasn’t exactly pleasant I’d rather be there than in hospital . Sending strength

@KJE3112

No offence taken! I am a slightly bigger girls yes. Do you know by any chance if they were vaginal scans your friend had and still struggled to find baby? Im glad to hear everything was okay tho!

How big? I understand (because it happened to my colleague who was about a size 20) that's it's much harder to scan if the woman is significantly over-weight?