QuestionThanks for your prompt response and giving me the courage to go back. They drew blood yesterday (18DPO) and it was borderline + at 8. Today the bleeding is still there but a little less. My breast are so tender that it hurts to wear a bra. The nurse was going to speak to the dr and call me back with a plan of action - i thnk she is a little confused too. WOuld this increasing tenderness indicate increasing hcg levels?
Is it possible that this is still a viable pregnancy with a level of only 8 and all the bleeding etc? Or is my body just having a tough time letting go of a non viable one?
This service is great - and I cant thank you enough for helping us ladies out - between the wonderful people in my GYN office and yourself my faith in the medical profession is being restored.
Claire
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Followup To
Question -
Age 40, LMP Feb27th, I have 2 girls ages 3 and 4.
I Was taking pill (levlen) until about 13th March this month but stopped taking it then. I had IBS for a couple of weeks at the end of feb and early march. On the 13th March I realised that I had actually ovulated (EWCM and raised sex drive) and had had intercourse 3 times on the days leading up to this. - 1st pregnancy was doing rythm method and second was nursing exlusively and never even had a period - so I know I am very fertile. I stopped taking the pill and started on Folic acid just in case.
Last week I got faint + on clear blue easy early HPT on wed,thur and Fri. I tested early as I was spotting a little anf this has only ever happened befre when I was actually PG. Menses was due friday and I spotted wed and thursday, on friday spotting was heavier so went to DR for blood test as I was skiing at the weekend and a little concerned. She said it looked like AF to her and that everything felt normal ie not pregnant, with my uterus and cervix etc so we wnet skiing and forgot about it. Blood tests results from friday came back as negative on Monday.
Today (Tuesday) I am still bleeding (about the same amount with red blood (no clots just deep red stringy blood) - see lots of red when i wipe but am not saturating pads at all - i could use one for the whole day!) and my breast are hurting a little - I took another clearblue test (just because I had it left over) this morning and my breasts were sore (unusual for me) and got + again (deeper blue than last week) so I thought maybe it was false reading just on their tests..so I bought a FRE on the way to work and retested at work again and I got a very very very faint pink (you know the kind of faint where you keep doubting its there but you know it must be as you keep seeing it in the same place! LOL) This morning my breasts are tender and I feel a little crampy in my back.
Any advise? I kinda got the feeling from the nurse practitioner that she thought i was totally imagining things (maybe I am!) so I feel a little reluctant to go back unless I need to) If I was still PG wouldnt the FRE have shown up very dark at this point and why would I get what appears to be menses and a negative blood test? But then if I wasnt pg why would it be faint pink and also + on the other test today? Could it be that maybe I am having a miss or chemical pregnancy and it takes a while for the hormones to disappear? Shousl I see Dr again or just wait it out - if I do go back will she think I am just being silly about this?
Yours very confused?
Claire
Answer -
Don't worry about appearing silly or being embarrassed by returning to the doctor for another test. If you are still in doubt as to whether you are pregnant or whether you had a miscarriage, you will have to do two blood tests for pregnancy (Beta HCG) 48 hours apart. If there is a doubling of the results in 48 hours, you are pregnant. If there is a halving of the results in 48 hours, you had a miscarriage. If the test is completely negative (less than 5), you were never pregnant. The manufacturers of the home pregnancy tests tell us that if you get any faint line on a pregnancy test it has to be treated as a negative test. In order to consider a pregnancy test positive, the lines must be dark and bold. Get the blood test and you will know for sure.
AnswerA value of 8 is really very, very low (considering that a value of less than 5 is considered not pregnant). I doubt that you are pregnant, but I would repeat the HCG in 48 hours. If it drops further, you are not pregnant and the bleeding can be controlled with Methergine 0.2mg every 4 hours for 6 doses. By now, if you were pregnant, the value should have been in the thousands.
