Early Pregnancy Loss: No Heartbeat at 6 Weeks 6 Days - Symptoms & What to Do

Question
hello doctor,

Am 32 yr old, with PCOD since 10 yrs. I have done numerous treatment for the same. After marriage my periods were normal.

On 4th of sept 2011, my pregnancy test came out negative, (my LMP was 24th July), after a week, i visited gyneac and she confirmed am pregnant. She said, am lucky to have conceived without any treatment.

Am put on metformin, folic acid tabs. on 6th oct, i did a transvaginal sonography and no heart beat was detected. i was told that fetus is 6 bweeks 6 days old by measurement. She asked me to wait for a week, for repeat sonography and discussed the possibility of Termination.

Am worried, please let me know what are the chances, am devasted so is my family.

thank you so much in advance

regards,
Jaya Nair

Answer
I understand your concern and worry. At the moment it is quite difficult to know the chances. At six weeks the foetal cardiac activity can be visualised on a trans vaginal ultrasound. But some times it may not be visualized till about eight weeks. This is particularly true of women like you who have PCOD. Because of the irregular cycles, we do not know when you might have conceived. Therefore dating the pregnancy is quite difficult in you case and that might lead to absent cardiac activity in USG, basically because your baby is too small to be picked up. I do hope that this is the case with you and hopefully they should be able to visualize cardiac activity in the next USG. Unfortunately this what we can say at this moment.