Early Scans.....HELP!!!!!!

[flynn1984]

Hiya all,

I had my early scan this morning. Midwife originally told me I was around 7 weeks pregnant, however the scan today didn't show this. The scan only showed an empty sac measuring at around 4-5 weeks. Is an empty sac at this point normal? They took blood for tests and will need to go back in 48 hours for another test to check out my hormone levels.
I've been really upset this morning as I'm fearful that my pregnancy is ending.

Here's hoping this bean sticks and roll on Friday to I get my final hormone results.

Laura x

The same happened to me, i thought i was 6 weeks with DS and had a slight bleed and when I was scanned the sac was empty.

2 weeks later there was a baby and a heart beat

I hope all goes well x

thank you for your reply, very comforting to know this has happened to other people. At least one good thing is coming out of this and that is my consultant wants me scanned every week or fortnight leading up to my 12 week scan...fingers crossed my blood results come back the way I want them to

Laura x

Best of luck - to be honest i've had this more than once, but on one occasion when i went back later dd3 was visible!!!

Did you do a vaginal or abdominal scan? They see more with the former.
Good luck x

I had a scan at 7 weeks and you could only just make out that there was something there. I also had my hormone levels done over 2 days - They should double which proves you are pregnant. Good luck x

Well my view on early scans is that they can often cause unnecessary worry because at that early stage a day or two can make all the difference as does the skill of the sonographer, quality of the equipment, and position of your uterus (mine is retroverted so that makes it harder to see for example)

This kind of thing happened to me twice before. When I was pregnant with dd2 I went for a scan at about 8 weeks because of abdominal cramping and there was a great deal of concern because the baby's heart beat could not be seen. They asked me to come back for another scan but I decided to leave it and see what happened - my reasoning is that in the first trimester anything can happen, and it's best to just wait and see how nature proceeds. At 12 weeks all was well...

Then in this pregnancy I was scanned for the same reason (TV scan), only 10 days after I got a positive urine test. At that time the sonographer could see a sac but nothing else at all, and a consultant told me she thought I had probably had a missed miscarriage and to come back for another scan. I felt she was probably wrong because it would be impossible to tell that only 10 days after a positive test so I didn't go back the next week. I'm 13 weeks now and at the last scan the baby appeared to be ok...

Although I can see why early scanning can be important, to rule out ectopic pregnancy, it also raises a lot of questions often and gets you into a position where you feel you need to keep going back for more scans.

Good luck, I hope it turns out ok for you.

hiya all

thank you again for your replies, very comforting.
I got my first set of blood results back yesterday afternoon. my hormone levels are coming in at pretty much normal for this stage in pregnancy (4-5 weeks) so it could be that due to irregular periods I'm not as far on as the midwife thought.
I go back for more tests tomorrow and will know tomorrow what is happening. Here's hoping its only the dates thats wrong.

Laura x

I had a scan because of abdominal cramping at 8 weeks after the first day of my last period. Scan actually showed I was 6 weeks 3 days, and everything was fine and dandy, heartbeat and all. I had just come off the pill when I got pregnant, so couldn't really know when I'd ovulated - maybe it's the same for you because of your irregular periods? All the best, try not to worry (though obviously I'm still worrying away and will be until I hit 12 weeks - and probably beyond - even though all the evidence points to everything being fine!)

Hi. Check out this. It's ultrasound scans week by week. baby2see.com/development/ultrasound_sonogram/first_trimester_scans.html#week4