Very low hCG levels at 16 weeks - does anyone have experience of this?

[MrsRaikkonen]

I'm posting on behalf of a friend of mine, the hopsital called her this afternoon and have asked her to go in for a scan first thing tomorrow morning as her hCG levels are 'extremely low'. She will be 17 weeks on Thursday. The person that she spoke to didn't really explain very much and now she is extremely worried about what this could mean. Does anyone have any advice or information I could pass on to her please?

Has she had a scan before, or will this be her first ?

She has had 2 scans - at first they thought she was a little small for her dates, then she had a small bleed and another scan which put her in line with her dates, everything looked fine at 12 weeks on the scan.

bump

From what i understand, sometime in the second trimester the hcg levels even out as the placenta takes over - but please don't take that as gospel.

I hope everything is ok for her.

Thanks - she has no idea what they are going to be looking for tomorrow, it's a bit baffling! I've heard of them monitoring levels early on but at 16 weeks??! It seems a bit strange!

when were the blood tests taken? Am pretty sure HCG levels drop dramatically after 12 weeks as the placenta takes over.

Very odd but spose they know what they are doing.

I'm not sure when they checked her levels last to be honest, she's signed out at the moment but will ask her when she comes back. She has a 5 mth old keeping her busy!