PLEASE Need Your Input: Is not seeing fetus at 6wks normal or not?
Hi All,
I hope you guys can give me some insight and information. We were in the early stages of IVF since I experienced an ectopic preganancy and haven't been able to get successfully pregnant even w/ increased dosages of Clomid. However, we had to put the IVF on hold several months ago until I could get my blood sugar under control, which wasn't terribly high but just a little. During that time, my blood sugar has been going down, and I have successfully lost weight. Also, a surprise occurred. I recently found out that I am pregnant.
Since I wasn't keeping track of my menstrual cycles, I had to ask the medical personnel when they think it happened. They believed I ovulated around 8/26. At this time, they think I'm at 6wks. Anyways, I just went in for my second vaginal ultrasound (u/s) earlier this week. The first one was to make sure that I didn't have an ectopic. During this second one, the Dr. saw the gestational and yolk sac but no fetus. My DH and I are concerned just from our previous experiences. When should we be seeing it? I've been researching on the internet, and I'm reading that even at 6wks maybe too early to see a fetus on the u/s.
Any information would be ever so greatful.
Re: PLEASE Need Your Input: Is not seeing fetus at 6wks normal or not?
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I'm sorry for everything you are going through. By 6 weeks, they should be able to see something and often a heartbeat, but not always. I don't think they consider it a fetus until about 11 weeks though. I have had 4 pregnancies and had 3 early ultrasounds at 6 weeks and always saw a gummy bear type thing and a heartbeat. However, since you don't know exactly how far along you are, a few days can make a big difference. I would hope the doctor is doing a follow up ultrasound in a few days to check on the progress. Good luck.
Also, it could be that your doctor's ultrasound isn''t of the highest quality. I always saw much more at my peri than at my regular ob's office. Was your doctor worried?
I'm sorry that you are going through all of this. It's no fun.
I'm not sure what you mean by a fetus, but when I went in for my first (6 week) u/s at my RE's office the only thing we could see was a blob, for lack of a better term. I also got pregnant on my own while waiting for IVF, and it turned out my dates were wrong. I ovulated much later than I ever thought I had. So what I thought was 6 weeks was really measuring 5 weeks 2 days. There was a heartbeat, however. The Dr. was pretty excited with that, and said that if we'd come in the day before we probably wouldn't have seen it. I was still very scared since I'd had a blighted ovum m/c 5 months before, and I thought that it was mathematically impossible to be 5 weeks. So, we waited a week and sure enough the baby was measuring 6 weeks 2 days, right on schedule for the u/s, just off from my dates, and the blob on the screen was bigger, but in no way resembled a baby at all.
I know that it's so hard to wait, but are you going back in a week to see progress? A few days can make a huge difference. I think that's the only way to tell at this point. Good luck to you! I really hope it works out for you.
Did you ask the Doc the same question? Are you supposed to go back for another u/s in a week a so? I think they should see the fetus at 6 weeks but you may be 5 weeks and not 6.
Thanks for all your responses and your well wishes. I will be having a follow-up u/s early next week. My Dr didn't sound very positive but wasn't totally negative. I asked what were the chances that we would see a fetus during our next u/s, and he gave us a 40-50% chance.
Same thing for me. My dates were just off.
Good luck and think positive!