High haematocrit levels ? What does it mean

[Expectingfirstbaby23]

I’m shocked none of the doctors has mentioned this to me . Looking in my maternity file at my blood results and noticed haematocrit levels are 0.340 when it says normal range is 0.36/0.46!! Is that not extremely high and worth mentioning or am I being silly ? Google says high levels could be heart disease now I’m bloody panicking . 29 weeks pregnant but these bloods were done a while back. Anyone any idea ?

0.34 is lower than 0.36

0.34 is slightly low according to the normal ranges, but the normal ranges printed don’t account for the normal physiological changes in pregnancy (your blood volume has increased significantly, but the liquid component of blood increases more than the red cell component, and this is most likely the explanation for the Hct being a little lower than ‘normal’). HTH.

Sorry @Floralnomad . Not quite understanding what this means

@Greybeardy so it’s low , not high ? It says normal 0.36 where as mine says 0.340 unless I’m being stupid here I won’t get it 🤣

The 0.36/0.46 could just as easily be written as 0.360/0.460 so your result is slightly low not high .

Put it down to pregnancy brain 😄

It’s very misleading @Floralnomad 😭😭

340 is bigger than 34

But 0.340 isn't bigger than 0.34. It's the same.

34.0000 isn't bigger than 340.0 either. 0s to the right of the decimal point don't affect the value of the number.

0.340 is the same as 0.34
The zero doesn't mean anything when it follows a decimal point.

So yes that's slightly low, but only barely. And it's not low enough to actually cause concern. You're OK!

It’s not 10x higher because there’s a 0 on the end. The numbers are very similar.
if it was 10x higher it would be 3.4, 0.34 and 0.36 have similar place values. You could add a million 0s to numbers after a decimal point and it doesn’t change it’s value.

in short, nothing to worry about

How confusing, thank you for the fast replies everyone 🫶🏻

Just seen on another result 0.342
So would this still be written at 0.34 ?

0.342 is very slightly higher. Does it make it easier if you get rid of the 0. ?

342 is higher than 340, but both are lower than 360.
It’s still well within what you’d expect in pregnancy.