Update: Positive early scan, but still overthinking a pre-implantation mouse study

[Babygirl01]

Hi everyone,
I posted here recently about my anxiety over two heavy drinking episodes before my very surprising positive test, and your reassuring replies helped me so much.
I wanted to share a quick update: I had my early ultrasound today! Everything looks good. The sac and embryo are measuring around 6 - 7 weeks and we saw a normal heartbeat. Based on the measurements, the doctor estimates ovulation happened around October 3rd-4th.
This means my second drinking episode (October 7th) appears to have happened when the embryo was 3-4 days old, before implantation. I brought up the drinking with my OB-GYN and she reassured me that the "all or nothing" rule applies here, but she dismissed it very quickly so I didn't specify the exact heavy amount.
However, I couldn't help myself and kept researching online. I stumbled upon a mouse study showing that heavy alcohol exposure pre-implantation can cause epigenetic changes and long-term issues without stopping the pregnancy.
Now I'm just curious from a medical standpoint: Has anyone’s doctor ever mentioned this type of research to them, or has any specialist ever suggested that the "all or nothing" rule might not be as absolute as generally thought?
Thanks again for all your support!

Do you have a link to the study you are referencing? Many different factors go into how transferable the results are and it’s important to note that one study does not change medical or scientific consensus. Many women have drunk heavily prior to finding out they are pregnant and their kids are fine. Friend of mine when on a hen weekend and her DC is now 13 with no ill effects.

You cant change what happened and you have had a reassuring scan. Please focus on that rather than going down the Google rabbit hole.

OP I know of many women who didn’t know they were pregnant and had a big night out and went on to have happy healthy children.

Put the studies away. Your GP has reassured you. You are overthinking this.

Can you link the study? The quality of it is important, but yes, the general medical consensus is that alcohol prior to implantation reduces the chances of a successful implantation, but it the embryo does implant it is fine.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8381495/ here it is.

Thank you all for the replies!

i do remember your previous post on this topic. I was wandering what your OB means by the all or nothing rule? It sounds like you are in quite of bit of worry with it, try not to let it stress you too much

First of all I'm really happy to hear you had a positive ultrasound. Congratulations!

I want to say this kindly, but I don't know that seeking reassurance from a medical professional is the right course of action here. I suspect that what you might need help with is the level that anxiety around this is intruding into your everyday life.

Are you in the US? Do you have access to talk therapy or advice around perinatal mental health? Anxiety and OCD can be greatly exacerbated by pregnancy and unfortunately what tends to happen is you find one way to seek reassurance (like posting on the internet) and it helps, but then it comes back. So you try another way (like speaking to your OB-GYN) and it helps, but then it comes back. So you start doubting whether they gave you the full answer because you might not have told them all of the information. Their answer would likely be the same, but it doesn't feel like that. So you get into another way to seek reassurance which is to look up studies and then you worry that perhaps the doctor or the posters online or both did not know about the study.

This is not a healthy progression. If you get an answer to this query you will most likely find another one to latch onto instead. This never ends. You are trying to eliminate uncertainty and that is impossible to do. It's a truly horrible feeling to be stuck in, but you don't have to be stuck in it - there is a lot you can do, but you often need to start by telling somebody that you need help with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive thoughts, because it's not that common that each individual health professional will realise that this is a pattern rather than a single query. Once you have found the right person to support with this they can advise you what the best course of action will be.

She meant that if it would have been a problem, the pregnancy would have not progressed. I will try to relax a bit. Thank you.

Thank you for the message. You are absolutely right. I am discussing my anxiety with a therapist, and we agreed to try to find other coping mechanisms over time and reduce reassurance-seeking. Still, sometimes it just feels like I need to hear one more success story...