Referred to EPU but they won’t scan

[cardiffgal22]

Hi just looking for some advice really. I am 7 weeks pregnant and have been having left sided lower abdominal pains and left shoulder pain which has been getting increasingly worse over the last 4 days. No bleeding or other symptoms. I called the GP this morning who said she suspected an ectopic pregnancy and put in an urgent referral to EPU. After a wait of 6 hours, I finally saw a doctor who refused to scan on the basis that they were too busy and it would have to wait until my 12 week scan. He keeps saying he thinks I have thrush and keeps asking how many sexual partners I have? This isn’t my current concern and not why I was referred to EPU. This hasn’t done anything to alleviate my anxiety and I’m now worried about a potential rupture happening before my 12 week scan. What should I do? Should I book a private scan or speak to the GP again? Feel like I’ve wasted an entire evening and if anything feel more anxious than I did 😔

This is horrendous- I’m so sorry you’ve been treated like this. Unfortunately, whilst it’s no excuse for your poor treatment today the NHS is creaking under the pressure of years of cuts, Covid etc.
I would ask to speak to your GP urgently tomorrow morning and if that gets you nowhere get yourself booked in for an emergency private scan (maybe even get it booked first as you can always cancel having spoken to your GP). You need it to be checked as soon as possible if there’s any question as to whether you might be experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. Meanwhile if your symptoms dramatically change (you go very dizzy, you start bleeding heavily, pain intensifies rapidly call 999).
Let us know how you get on.

Are you still there? If you’re able, refuse to leave without getting scanned. Your symptoms are signs of an ectopic pregnancy as your doctor said. Is the pain still there, or getting worse? If so, and if you’ve left, you need to go back and get scanned. The doctor’s behaviour is strange given your symptoms.

I'm shocked the epu refused to scan.
I've had 2 ectopics, one of them ruptured. The shoulder pain is a symptom of ectopic pregnancy because it's a symptom of internal bleeding from the rupture. (The blood touches a nerve that results in shoulder pain apparently). What I can also say about the shoulder pain is that it was excruciating. It felt like someone was trying to rip my arm out of my socket, I've never had such pain before. So if this is the typical pain and that's not what you've had then maybe the doctor didn't consider it a symptom.
If you continue to get the pain in one side then go back. From what I understand from my experiences , 7 weeks would be quite far gone for an ectopic too. At that size the tube would have ruptured a while ago. Again likely to be why at epu they doubted ectopic.

This is quite shocking. Are you still in hospital? Can you demand to see someone else?

If not can you ring triage yourself and get referral rather than GP? Here you can ring direct to EPAU. If you have to put it on more to make sure you get seen.

I'm sorry you're going through this.

Thank you for the kind messages, I’m relieved at your responses as part of me was wondering if I was making a fuss over nothing! I spoke with a nurse who spoke to a different doctor and they’ve decided to admit me overnight so that I can be scanned in the morning thank god!!

@cardiffgal22 sorry you had to go through that- after your scan ask for the complaints procedure. Hope it's not ectopic and all is ok. I had left shoulder pains at 6+5 and all was fine in my scan, I'd unknowingly over stretched and that caused pain for 6 days x

Wait, he ask how many sexual partners you’d had?! This doctor sounds very unprofessional.

They have a duty of care towards you. If you are showing potential signs of an ectopic, it can’t wait until 12 weeks. Being busy is no excuse to deny you that care.

Go back to your doctor and get them to speak up for you.

Failing that, book a private scan.

Sorry you are having all this trouble, and good luck,

I had a horrible experience with a similar situation.

Lower left hand side cramps and shoulder pain. I called the out of hours and they told me to wait it out and unless I was in extreme pain not to go to a&e but did say it sounded ectopic.

I phoned EPU as pains got worse and they told me to head straight to a&e and made an appointment with me for the next morning if I wasn't happy with how the a&e visit went.

A&e could not have cared less. Took my bloods and urine sample and CANCELLED my EPU appointment for the next morning. Spoke to me for about two minutes after a 5 hour wait and told me to go home.

Push to be seen! Who defines 'extreme' pain?!

Contact PALS and complain about that doctor.

I'm so sorry you had that experience on top of what is a worrying enough time as it is. I hope all is OK.

I went into A&E with suspected ectopic and they couldn't scan me so admitted me overnight. Hopefully it's okay for you- mine was!

Same here. If I were you and there was another A&E accessible, I'd go there. If not - he'll be off shift by now. Go back. Hope you're okay now