Uterine arteries not visible on 20 week scan

[strawberry11]

Appreciate this is a bit of a specific issue, but I had my 20 week scan and they couldn't find the uterine arteries to take a reading of the blood flow. The sonographer said "you can never not find them" and even called a colleague in for a second opinion and help.

I was in for a good long while but eventually she had to give up, and I've gone by default on the extra scans pathway to check for growth.

Anyone else come across this scenario? I can't find anything online, it does appear that you can never not see them!

@strawberry11 this happened to me! I don't know why. The sonographer was quite rushed as they had had some staff sickness so I wonder if she just didn't want to spend more time looking.

In the end she put me on the pathway for growth scans from 28 weeks. I had my first one 2 weeks ago and all was fine with finding the arteries.

So, you're not alone! It did worry me a bit, but I've worried about everything this pregnancy...

Not heard of this before but it sounds like it might just be a precaution? I assume she didn't make any comments about baby measuring wrong for dates? If everything else looked good then I wouldn't panic too much because baby is obviously doing g well so far!

That's weird she said 'you can never not find them'.. I'm not a sonographer but I work in maternity care and I've always been told they're so tricky to find esp at 20 weeks. I'd say it was more of an awkward view than anything to worry about. No harm giving them a ring to clarify if it's causing you some worry but as far as I understand it's not the easiest measurement to obtain.

Oh I'm glad it's not just me, and glad everything looked okay. She seemed so confused, but did say she wasn't concerned about the baby, but by default would have to refer me for extra growth scans.

No she said that the growth was as expected and did say she wasn't concerned. Hopefully just a precaution. Thanks 😊

Thank you, that is very reassuring 😊 it's not something I'd ever heard of, they asked me if I had been on the pathway with my son but I hadn't, so not sure if that's something that can differ between pregnancies, but hopefully was just an awkward angle. I did think that "you can never not find them" wasn't the most reassuring thing to say to a pregnant woman 😂