Why all the early scans?

[maryd84]

Is this a new thing. See a lot of posts from people getting lots of early scans even at 5 weeks gestation. A scan is not going to show much at 5 weeks. The private scan places must be making a fortune.

Exactly. If I'd have just got my test and happily waited I'd have been devastated at 12 weeks when I learned it had stopped developing at 5.5. As it was I had a scan at 6.5 for reassurance and they found no heartbeat measuring 5.5. Went back in a week and still the same. Referred to EPU and had another scan 1 week after that for them to confirm all the same. 1 week later had surgical management. All that took long enough but at least I was prepared and didn't waste time being happy etc for 3 months!

@marriedatlastsight the nhs didn't tell me anything about not having scans. My private gynecologist is also an nhs consultant and never told me anything. I am currently having a scam every 2-3 weeks for different reasons and no one ever told me to stop.

Anxiety during pregnancy is not something that will last for ever, it's for a specific period and if having a scan can calm down the nerves, I don't see what is the problem. Anyone deals differently with problems or situations. For me it would be absolutely insane to only have 2 scans in 9 months, but I don't tell women who have only 2 scans that they should do differently.

With DS it was accidental, we had no idea how far I was as periods are wonky.

With twins, because I was getting lots of pain and NHS wouldn't help unless there was bleeding so I needed to know where baby was for my own piece of mind

One a week could be very obsessive and unhealthy. Good scan places should have a rule for only once every two weeks. I think too much information can be unhelpful. Having all the scans under the sun won't change the outcome. And this obsession with knowing the sex as early as possible is bizarre.

I had NHS scans at 5 weeks and 7 weeks for a massive bleed.

I had my first scan with my second child at 4 weeks. Whilst it obviously couldn't see a heartbeat it could look at the womb lining and tell me that I needed progesterone following multiple miscarriages. I was then scanned every week until 8 weeks. This was nearly 20 years ago so it's nothing new. Without that scan and the treatment she wouldn't be here today, no question

I couldn't deal with waiting to find out if it was another ectopic.

@marriedatlastsight for me - managaging my anxiety, was to get private scans. I can afford to - so why not?!

I had an early scan - which was too early to be certain it was viable (I thought I'd conceived earlier than I had). I went back ten days later and they could see the heartbeat. I then had another scan before we told immediate family, as again I wanted to be sure before we broke the news. I had a further private scan before a friends wedding - again I wanted to be sure I was pregnant. If I had lost the baby, I wanted to be able to drink!

This was all before my NHS scan. For me it was ensuring that everything was going ok.

Those of us who have had missed miscarriages or ectopic I think can find a lot of value in finding out whether there's an issue earlier, rather than waiting for the 12 week scan to get bad news that could have been diagnosed earlier, and having the opportunity to get treatment for ectopic before it ruptures. (I understand this doesn't apply to everyone!)

All businesses are there to serve a customer base they have identified, and it's very rare everyone agrees on if an optional service is needed. But wanted and needed are 2 different things. There's tens of thousands of services/companies that exist that are technically not necessary but still are wanted by people. Each to their own and all that :)

In most other countries it’s standard to have a scan at 8 weeks to confirm pregnancy in the correct location. If there’s a miss miscarriage you want to know as early as possible whilst medical management is still an option. You want to rule out ectopic. Check the lining of the uterus in case you might need extra progesterone etc. I don’t think the issue is people paying for it privately but rather we should be asking why the NHS doesn’t offer it as standard.

@maryd84 I’m like you and wouldn’t want to have early scans as it’s more likely you’ll miscarry before 12 weeks and it would seem more real to me if I had a scan. Women say it gives them reassurance and that’s a good thing although for some it increases their anxiety as it seems like every week you get someone posting on here that they went for a scan at 7 weeks but there was no heartbeat and now they’re in a complete panic and have to wait x number of days before a rescan when really everything is fine and they likely just miscalculated their dates. I’ve also read of women going for a scan every week or more as their anxiety goes down during the scan but days later they get anxious again. I think it’s sad with those women as there’s clearly something underlying the anxiety and to be fair to a lot of scan places they do put limits on how many scans you can get.

@TropicalTrama agree completely with you. People go for private scans for loads of reasons, reassurance being one of them. You could never get this on the NHS as standard.
I chose to have a private scan at 9w but mainly because I wanted to know how far along I was due to coming off the pill and not having a last period date plus knowing the pregnancy was in the correct place. I cannot fault my experience at all, although it is expensive!
i had another at 18w because my 20 week scan had been missed by the NHS and I wasn’t booked in until I was 23 weeks nearly!

With my first pregnancy I had an early scan as I was living abroad at the time and it was normal. That scan showed ann empty sac and was how I found out if had a missed miscarriage. I was grateful to know and be prepared for what was to come. So my second pregnancy I had an early one at 8 weeks just for a bit of reassurance (even though I know it could show a heartbeat and then still end in miscarriage).

I agree. Early pregnancy care is actually pretty poor in this country

@maryd84 I've had early scans because of numerous miscarriages and a suspected ectopic pregnancy. I didn't go private or pay though as they were for medical reasons.

There's lots of reasons why someone would want or be sent for an early scan.

Some people just want to have a bit of reassurance and see what they're growing so they will pay for an early scan.

If it's available and they're happy to pay, why not? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree early pregnancy care is poor here. When I bled at 6 weeks I was told my GP had to refer me to the EPU for a scan. The EPU told me the GP simply needed to refer me, I didn't need a standard GP appointment. Despite telling GP reception this, I was unable to get past them and was told repeatedly all appointments are gone, ring back later or tomorrow. Ended up paying for a private scan instead, basically to confirm it wasn't ectopic. Genuinely felt so alone with no where to go NHS wise in early pregnancy, because their pathways and routes to getting help just don't work.

I had private scans at 8 weeks for both pregnancies.

Reason being I found out I was pregnant at around 4 weeks both times, and it felt like a long wait til 12 weeks with only a home pregnancy test to go on as confirmation!

Also, I read somewhere that if you can see baby's heartbeat on a scan at 8 weeks the risk of miscarriage is very low... so while it's not gone altogether, I found this really reassuring both times. Source and quote below.

"research indicates that between 10% and 20% of people with a medically confirmed pregnancy will end in miscarriage. Meanwhile, the risk of miscarriage after a fetal heartbeat is detected is only around 4%, dropping to 1.5% after 8 weeks..." - https://www.verywellfamily.com/making-sense-of-miscarriage-statistics-2371721#:~:text=For%20instance%2C%20research%20indicates%20that,and%200.9%25%20by%209%20weeks.

@Sagittarius25 I'm so sorry. I can completely emphasise as I had a similar experience with my firsts MMC. It was impossible to get an early scan, I lost the pregnancy at 11 weeks which was a huge shock and very traumatic- if I had known earlier I wouldn't have spent 11 weeks getting emotionally attached to a baby that was never going to be. It makes the emotional as well as the physical side much harder.

For my subsequent pregnancies (which have all ended in loss) I've been treated privately because it's the only way I could organise care.

What counts as ‘new’ to you OP? And why are you concerned about private clinics
making a fortune? Just seems an odd thing to get judgey about 😄

My eldest is 8 and I’ve had a scan around 5 -7 weeks with each baby. First at EPU because of bleeding, other 2 privately because I wanted to and it’s a long wait until the 12-14 week scan to potentially then be told there’s nothing there etc.

No, it's not a new thing in the slightest.

My eldest is in their early twenties and I had several early scans with them.

It's also perfectly normal in other countries. I expect the NHS don't do it as routine to save money rather than because it's truly "not medically necessary".

A good medical professional can see a lot at leas than 8 weeks and early planning for eventualities is important.

Previous molar pregnancy so I had a scan at 6 weeks for this pregnancy, as advised by the oncology unit - to check it was a true pregnancy and not regrowth of the moles.

I don't think it's reasonable to ask why people have them to be perfectly honest. People want reassurance because 12 weeks is a long time to wait and sometimes, you want to be prepared for the news.