Inconclusive Early Pregnancy Scan - has anyone experienced this?

[ThatOchreQuoter]

I had an early 6 week pregnancy scan today that was inconclusive. They could see the sac but no baby or heartbeat. I now realise it was a stupid decision to get this and am really regretting it. There was no reason for the scan other than wanting to confirm the pregnancy before we tell our close family. I had an 8 week scan with my first baby and I didn’t think there would be much difference in them.

The clinic have told me that it could either be too early to see anything and try again in 2 weeks or the pregnancy hasn’t continued.

I only had one period before falling pregnant as I’ve been breastfeeding. Before I started trying for my first baby I had a contraceptive implant in my arm for over 10 years which messed up my periods. I don’t really know how many days my menstrual cycle is so I clicked 28 on the forms which put me at 6 +2 today. However they measured the sac as 5 +6.

I’m feeling fairly positive that it’s just too early as I’ve been feeling normal and no bleeding etc. I was wondering if anyone else has experience of this?

I had some early scans because of bleeding in my pregnancy (heavy implantation bleeding). One of the scans was similar to you sac measuring 5+5 and that's the only thing they could see. I went back two weeks later and there was a little embryo and a heartbeat. I'm now 16 weeks pregnant.

It could go either way this early. But I remember how terrified I was. It's not nice. Just try to relax as much as you can and you'll know in two weeks.

Also try to remember that it's very easy for measurements to be off in early pregnancy as they are so tiny. My next scan I measured 6+6 when it should have been 7+5 based on the previous scan. Had a nervous wait for the 12 week scan. To find out that baby was then measuring over a week ahead of what I was expecting based on the last scan!

I hope it's a good outcome for you.

Was the scan internal or external?

I had an internal scan at 6 weeks and they could see the gestational sac, yolk sac and beginning of a fetal pole but no heartbeat. They said days make all the difference at that stage, and I could have realistically been a few days earlier or later as I didn’t know exactly when implantation took place. Everything was fine!

With my second baby I pushed the first scan till 7.5 weeks.

(The reason I have early scans is a previous ectopic pregnancy).

Ive had 3 losses with bleeding and no bleeding and my current pregnancy i had brown bleeding.
All i had scans around the 7 week mark!
3 miscarriages with no heartbeat seen and then with this one, we saw our first heartbeat!
It can literally go either way at this point!
I know dates can range when your so early, but with this one i was measuring i believe it was 7+3 and was going for my scan at what i thought was 12+2.
I was actually measuring 12+4 so 2 days out😅
Take it a step at a time. Have they asked you to come back in a week or 2? At 5+6 it will be inconclusive, you'll not reallt see anything but days matter! A lot can change in a matter of days!
If it was an NHS scan at EPAU, it should have been TV, in which they advise you to come back in a week or 2 to confirm!

Good luck

I don't think there's anyway to tell at this point, I'd be booking another scan for a couple of weeks time. You say you feel normal and no bleeding - unfortunately with miscarriages you do feel like this, until your body is ready to expel it all - I was measuring behind at 8 weeks (they said it was 6 weeks in size), it was 4 weeks later that I miscarried. It takes the body a long time to realise the pregnancy isn't going well.
I really hope this isn't the case for you. Good luck!

As others have said it can go either way at this point. If you are pretty much 6 weeks pregnant they would normally be able to at least see a yolk sac by this point. So it’s possible you have a blighted ovum (where nothing ever develops in the sac). But as you don’t know exactly when you ovulated or how long your cycles are you could just be too early. It also depends whether you had an internal or external scan. Externals are not accurate at this point. For me whenever I’ve been measuring behind I’ve gone on to lose the pregnancy. But plenty of people catch up dates or are just earlier than they thought and everything is fine at the next scan.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Just to clarify it was an internal scan that I had.

@ThatOchreQuoter yes I had this. Went for a scan at what I thought was 6+1 but measured 5+5 and only saw gestational and yolk sac. Went back 2 weeks later and saw baby with heartbeat! Just been again this morning and baby is measuring bang on that first scan 9+5 now. I know I ovulated a few days late (day 18) so it's probably the same for you! I wouldn't worry at all x

I just wanted to provide an update for anyone who took the time to post on the thread or for anyone who has stumbled upon this thread because they’ve had the same thing happen.

We went for our second scan today and there was a baby with a fluttering heartbeat ☺️

This is incredible!! Congratulations!
To answer your question, i do believe the progesterone helped me loads, when i spoke to my consultant as a discharge meeting i told him my worries and he said with progesterone you dont have a thing to worry about! I cried and thanked him for getting me to 10 weeks!!
Now im at 28 weeks and could literally buy him a gift for doing this for me!!!

Sending you loads of love and future happiness! Xx