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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

"Pregnancy of Unknown Viability"

3 replies

bootsoctopus · 14/01/2025 22:44

Hi everyone

Sorry for the long post!

This is my first pregnancy, I was having some light spotting and cramps around Christmas (around 6 weeks pregnant according to date of last period), so I had a scan at what should have been 7 weeks and 2 days, and they said that the foetus was measuring 5 weeks and 2 days, there was a flicker on the scan which they said could have been the heart beat, and the CRL was 2.7mm. They brought me back two weeks later for a second scan (today), and the bleeding has gone from light spotting to basically a light period (but not really any cramps).

I went in expecting them to say that it was a miscarriage, and the sonographer said "I'm sorry but there's no heartbeat", which wasn't really a surprise. We went in to see the doctor afterwards and he asked if I understood what was going on. I said "there's no heartbeat so I guess it's a miscarriage", but the doctor said it wasn't, it was a "pregnancy of unknown viability", and I need to come back in another two weeks to check for further progress. He said that if today's scan was my first scan, they wouldn't really be worried because it could just be too small to detect a heartbeat since it's below 7mm.

He also said that the CRL is now 4.8mm, and he wasn't too concerned about the fact that it hadn't grown much, but surely if it's only grown from 2.7mm to 4.8mm in 14 days, and there's no heartbeat at what should be over 9 weeks by now, that's very unlikely to be viable, surely?

Has anyone else had a similar experience? The next two weeks of waiting are going to be rough, and my head is just all over the place at the moment. Is there a chance that it'll work out? I was mentally prepared for it to be a miscarriage today, but the sort of optimism of the doctor has somewhat thrown me off, really.

OP posts:
nicslackey1 · 14/01/2025 22:55

No experience of this but just wanted to send you a hand hold and hope that things work out. Do you have support irl?

bootsoctopus · 14/01/2025 23:01

Thank you so much, that is so kind of you. I do, thank you, my partner and family are super supportive, all of this 'being in limbo' is so hard on them, too!

OP posts:
Sierra26 · 15/01/2025 08:38

I’m sorry you’re going through this. I haven’t had the same experience, but have read accounts from others on here where, at this early stage, if there is no heartbeat on a scan the EPU will want to rescan 2 weeks later before confirming miscarriage. It could be that they’re applying this process, given there has actually been growth since your first one? They’d be looking for no heartbeat + no growth before confirming, I think.

Is there any chance your dates could be wrong? I guess the doc is right that it could still be too small to see a heartbeat, but it would also be too small going by your dates (I was certain of my dates (IVF) and had CRL of 4.6mm with heartbeat visible at 6w+2, then 14.3mm at 7w+5, which I was told was average).

The measurements can of course be inaccurate at this early stage but I’m surprised the doctor wasn’t more concerned and didn’t do more to manage your expectations.

Could you go for a private scan while you wait, just to get more info? I know it won’t change things but would be another data point.

I know you came on here looking for hope so I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to give you it ❤️ I do hope I’m wrong and that you have a good outcome xx

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