High Beta hCG Levels in Early Pregnancy: What Does It Mean?

Question
Hello, I am (surprisingly) pregnant with baby #3. I have never had a miscarriage or stillbirth, and had two successful vaginal births. I had a beta drawn at 6 weeks 5 days and my level was 101,000. My doctor sent me for an ultrasound which showed a healthy baby measuring 7 weeks 1 day and a heartbeat of 135 bpm. my doctor ordered repeat bloodwork for the high beta level. this was done four days after the initial bloodwork. The result of that was 125,000. This seems to be well off any charts I have looked at and I'm starting to get very worried. What causes high beta levels? The technician and my OB were very pleased with the ultrasound so what gives?!

Answer
Dear Lisa,

WOW!!! OK, first, I might want to try another lab since the results of the ultrasound were perfectly normal. Maybe a machine is not calibrated correctly! Although you'd think they would have other complaints...

The common causes for a high hCG are:
-Miscalculation of pregnancy dating
-Molar pregnancy
-Multiple pregnancy

Your doctor seems to have ruled these out. However, there is great variation in hCG levels. It isn't the absolute value that matters in these results, but the change in values. In a normal pregnancy, the level of this hormone approximately doubles about every two days during the first trimester. There are some other causes of an increased hCG level that are independent of pregnancy which your doctor may explore just to be thorough, but because there is such a broad range of normal for hCG in pregnancy, the "normal" value can be 5,000-200,000 for 1-2 months gestation. And yes, it is typically progressive.  :-)  But again, the range is very broad.

I would suggest that as long as everything else about the pregnancy is going along normally and appears to be perfectly healthy, there is no need for worrying about some kind of unknown that may not exist at all at this point.

I hope this has helped you and answered your question. I wish you well.

Brenda