Empty Embryonic Sac

Hi -

After getting two positive home pregnancy test results, I went to the doctor and he performed an i/v sonogram (ultrasound) - this was 5.5 weeks after the first day of my last period and approximately 3.5 weeks after conception.  The sonogram only showed an empty sac, which measured a good size and shape (according to the doctor).  The doctor expressed concern and drew blood to measure my HCG level.  The results came back with a 28,000 beta hcg - which the doctor said should correspond with seeing a heart beat.  He drew more blood 3 days later to check whether the hcg levels had doubled, however, he is very pessimistic and says that most likely the pregnancy will need to be terminated.   Could be any hope in this case - is it possible that despite the high HCG levels it may still have just been too early to see anything other than the sac?
Thank you.

[AnnieBrooke]

You don't say whether the levels did double.  Did they?  It could possibly be too early for an ultrasound to show anything in the sac especially if you ovulated a little late in your cycle, but by now generally speaking something should be there.  If the numbers were also failing to double, that would be a pretty clear indication of a problem.

[loompo]

Hi AnnieBrooke, thank you so much for your words of encouragement.  Hello everyone -

I would like to give a very happy update - I went in to the doctor and learned that my levels had indeed doubled.  He had a technician do another ultrasound and the heartbeat was right there - seen and heard :-).  They measured me at 6w4d, which means that at my first appt I was only about 5w5d - which is really too early, so not sure why my doctor set off such an alarm at my first appt - I really wish I would have waited to go to the doctor and not drive myself crazy stressing out about the potential termination.  The moral of the story is that sometimes it is just too early and had I known about situations like this before, I would never have gone to the doctor until I was at least 7-8 weeks along.

Thank you again!