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Miscarriage/Pregnancy Loss
lunabriosa
member
Missed miscarriage at 7W5D: To medically miscarry or not?
lunabriosa
member
Hi all! Went to my first OB appt at 7W5D. After the vaginal ultrasound, he saw an empty gestational sac and no heartbeat. He recommended taking the medication to induce a miscarriage, then coming back in for an ultrasound and blood tests to make sure. I picked up the medication, but I need to know what I'm going to be experiencing so started to do some research. I'm also not found of pharmaceuticals so was wondering if I could/should wait to naturally miscarry. I found many stories of women having been misdiagnosed with a blighted ovum or no heartbeat early on, only to go back weeks later at 10 or 12 weeks and surprise there's actually a baby. I know that blighted ovums are common. It seems misdiagnoses are somewhat common also. I have come to terms with the fact that I have lost a child. But I am frozen in indecision because maybe 1% of a 1% chance that I have a tilted uterus and the fetus just couldn't be found on the ultrasound this early and I may end up accidentally performing an abortion on myself. Help! How can I be 100% sure? Any suggestions?
Re: Missed miscarriage at 7W5D: To medically miscarry or not?
Unless you develop an infection there is no need to medically intervene. You can wait for as long as you feel comfortable for nature to take its course - however, I would recommend letting your doctor's office know you are choosing to wait for now.
How sure are you about your dates? It's true that waiting for a second ultrasound sometimes reveals a viable pregnancy but those are usually cases where the woman ovulated much later than expected. If you are confident you know when you ovulated I'm afraid there is not much hope that things will show different in a few weeks.
In January I had a blighted ovum diagnosed at 8 weeks, and after my D&C I read those same stories about tilted uterus we making it hard to see and that always sat in the back of my mind. When I had my most recent loss I measured at 6w1d with no heartbeat when I knew I should have been 6w3 at the least if not 6w5d. They told me to come back for another scan in a week and the baby hadn't grown at all. Then they told me my options. and because of the "what if" from my blighted ovum I chose to wait for things to happen naturally. They told me that if nothing happened on its own in two weeks to come back for an ultrasound to see how things were progressing. I was 10 weeks at that point and the baby still measured 6w1d with no heartbeat but my gestational sac measured at 9w6d with no detachment. At that point I opted for a D&C.
I'm sorry you have to make this choice - but you've come to a board with many kind helpful women who have been there before.
BFP1 12/24/14 - EDD 09/07/15 (D/C 8w1d)
BFP2 6/12/15 - EDD 2/22/16 (D/C 10w3d)
———
Diagnoses and Treatments
PCOS (myo-inositol, excercize)
Indeterminant levels of APS IgM antibodies (baby aspirin)
Sub-septate uterus (hysteroscopic septoplasty 12/18/15)
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BFP3 05/02/16 EDD 01/09/17 DS born 01/05/17
BFP4 01/28/19 EDD 10/?/19 🤞🙏
Thank you so much for your reply! And I'm sorry for your loss as well. This has been one crazy roller coaster. It was unplanned, but not unwelcome. It's also my first pregnancy, at 40. Just when I had wrapped my head around the idea, it got turned upside down.
I'm pretty ironclad on the dates. I keep track with an app, and this happened around specific events which helped pinpoint everything. I absolutely think a blighted ovum is very possible because of the timing and I would have had to have ovulated early (according to the app, which was pretty accurate), but only a day or two off. I'm just caught in this "what if" loop now.
Thanks again for your comments. They are very helpful.
In terms of the timeline for natural miscarriage, many people take 3-4 weeks for their bodies to recognize it. For me my baby stopped growing at 5w5d and my body recognized it enough to start bleeding about 1.5 weeks later, but I still haven't finished naturally miscarrying now at over 3 weeks later so I'm taking the misoprostol tomorrow (my first day off work since this all happened). I made that decision primarily because I want to try again as soon as possible and because I feel stuck in my grieving as I'm physically stuck with what's left of my angel baby inside me.
In case anyone wants to know, I did take the pills. It was a very unpleasant experience, but I had extenuating circumstances that made it more painful and added extra negative symptoms for me. That being said, I only had to take them once and did not need the dnc. My doctor was great; realizing that I hadn't come in or called for an appointment (I forgot) he called me on a Sunday to see how I was doing. He's been very reassuring and supportive, as has the rest of his staff. When I came back in I was getting hugs from the nurses and everyone was so compassionate. I again thank everyone here for their support, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope to be back soon with better news!