Gestational age is 5 days behind LMP

[SophieRules]

I’ve had an early private scan and the GA is 5 days behind. I know I ovulated on day 13/14, and my periods are regular, 28 day cycles, so there should be no reason for this difference. Should I be worried? The scan was a 6 week scan so very early. But I’m concerned the fetus is growing too slowly. I also don’t have any symptoms. I see no reason why it should be measuring 5 days smaller than it’s actual age if there isn’t a problem. Did anyone else experience this?

I think this is extremely common. I had a few early private scans and each gestational age was slightly different, my first scan was dated few days earlier and the sonographer assured me that was very normal. 6 weeks is so unbelievably early and tiny to measure. Book another at 8/9 weeks to compare. Good luck x

I've had 2 early scans and similar happened with the first one - measured a week behind. I thought I was 7 weeks and knew exactly when I ovulated so was worried it wasn't progressing. Had another scan a week later and baby had caught up to where it should be. I think at this stage when it's so early it's difficult to measure and it's so so tiny there must be so much room for error. Have you got any more scans coming up for reassurance? From the due date group I'm in it's happened to many people

I had a scan at 6+2 and the sonographer said it's not very accurate for dating that early, they prefer to date it from atl leest 8 weeks on.
Apparently it's not uncommon for it to be 5-7 days out in either direction in the early stages.
They're working in fractions of millimetres

They are measuring teeny tiny measurements at this point and if the machine is a little less sensitive it can easily measure very slightly off which will change the age calculation.

It's really early days and there is no guarantee but try not to get too worried.

Thanks for the replies, I’ll try not to worry, feel like there’s almost too much information these days. My next scan is in a week and a half.

Please DONT worry!
I had a scan at 6 weeks, and I was measuring behind (I knew exactly when I ovulated)
scan at 9 weeks was spot on to my ovulation dates
scan at 12 weeks measured AHEAD few days
😅😅

It's very common and scans even later ones have -/+ 20% margin for error.

I had similar and then scanned again at 8 weeks and measured a week early, 10 weeks were the same as previous - had the same sonograhoer 2x, 12 week scan I should have been 12 wk + 4 days but measured at 13 wks.

Baby then measured circa 5th centile layer on in pregnancy but arrived 3 wks early EDB. A very healthy 6 pounder.

Midwives then reminded me that the dates are just estimated and what matters is the overall health of the fetus/baby. That large parents can have tiny babies, and tiny parents can have large babies. To not worry unless someone tells you to worry.

Just to give another anecdote, as I don't think it would be fair for you to be fully reassured and go into your next scan completely unprepared for any possibility that there could be anything wrong... I had a private scan a couple of weeks ago where I was measuring 6+1 (with a heartbeat) when I should have been 6+6. That worried me, and so I had a repeat scan a week later which showed hardly any growth and no heartbeat. I am currently having medical management for a missed miscarriage.
So sometimes these things are fine and the baby can catch up. But sometimes measuring smaller than dates can be an indicator that there is an issue. I really hope you have a happy outcome.

I had a scan at 9+0 weeks once and it had stopped at 6+2 (mmc). In my second pregnancy I had a scan at 9+1 and it was dated three days behind at 8+5. I knew when I ovulated. That pregnancy resulted in ds. In the scan they said 5 days either way and they wouldn’t think it’s out of the normal due to the error in accuracy at that stage. I assume at 6 weeks it’s incredibly small.

Im currently 6 weeks and all being well I’m going to avoid a scan until 8.5 weeks. I don’t want the extra worry. I will have one though due to the mmc and how long winded that was.

Good luck with the next scan.

Sorry for your loss :(. Is DS Downs? Wishing you a healthy and happy pregnancy.

DS = darling son
DD = darling daughter

I think the poster was saying she had a healthy pregnancy that resulted in her son.

Unfortunately miscarriages can happen at any time, I personally don't think it's related to measurements being out at a 6 week scan - it's so common because the feotus is so tiny at that age.

If you were to go back and growth had slowed then yes, that's different. But measurements out by up to a week? totally normal. A sonographer wouldn't even bat an eyelid at that at 6 weeks if there weren't any other issues or concerns.

That's not to say nothing bad can happen after that, just that the dating is likely to be totally unrelated if everything looks good and there's a heartbeat at that first scan.

Measurements are so hard to take that early. I'd a scan at 8 weeks and I was 4 days behind , my scam at 13 weeks I was 6 days ahead. Babies grow at different rates even in the womb. It's too early to tell if its a good sign or bad sign unfortunately

Absolutely not. DS was 5 days behind at his first scan (at 5+5 due to early bleeding) and no heartbeat. They asked if I could have possible got my dates wrong (no, I couldn't) 2 weeks later he was measuring 4 days ahead. Based on my 12w scan my EDD was 7 days ahead! FWIW I went into labour on the date I had calculated based on my LMP.

Thank you all, as always there are no guarantees, but this doesn’t seem like something I should be obsessing over. I will try to be positive and hopefully get some symptoms soon :)

Sorry for the confusion. I had my son from that pregnancy, they use DS on Mumsnet to mean son as the previous person explained.

Don’t worry at all, the measurements at that stage are so tiny. That’s very early (too early in my opinion) to have a scan unless medical reason like bleeding-for this exact reason, causing unnecessary anxiety. Just leave it til your 12 week scan unless you have bleeding.