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My experience with slow rising Beta numbers




This one is lengthy but I pray those waiting on slow rising numbers may read and be a little informed of what to possibly expect.

I remember browsing this board and the net in general about four and a half months ago, desperately searching for someone to tell me that slow rising beta numbers can still produce a healthy baby. The more I personally researched the more I heard the cry of many women experiencing the very frustration/ terror that I was.
I had previously lost two babies. One at 5mnths due to tightly coiled cord and the next from a blighted ovum. Now a blighted ovum was generally a one off event so I held out hope for the one I was now carrying and in trouble. When I first found out I was pregnant about four months ago I spotted at the time I was due for my period.
I went to the doctors for help. They immediately started testing my hcg levels.
They rose remarkably in week four (since first day of last menstruation.)of my pregnancy. My level then even nearly tripled at the close of that week. Due to the rapid doubling I started scouring the boards looking for the possibility of twins.
So week four marked rapid growth of the little being/s inside of me. The beginning of week five things changed. Instead of seeing rapid growth continue or even normal doubling, my numbers were not doubling in the normal time frame. So I then comforted myself that they had reached the 6000 UIL stage so the doubling time would take longer. This information I found on some but not all web sights. Perhaps I was losing a vanishing twin was another idea quiet viable and at the time comforting. Between week 5 and six the numbers then went up only twenty points in total. At this time I was sent to see a specialist. I explained my concern on slow rising beta
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Avatar universal
This is my first pregnancy and I'm 5 weeks.  My first test at week 4 (first day of missed period) my numbers were 77, 2nd test 4 days later were 123.  1 week later (today) they are at 735.  I have another test in 1 week (week 6) and also my first ultrasound. My doctors say although it's good that the number are increasing, they are still very cautious about the outcome. Not much I can do but pray for the best.

Thanks to everyone else who has commented, it helps to know that I'm not going through this alone.

Jo
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I am currently 4 weeks, 6 days pregnant.  My numbers were 93 at 3 weeks 6 days, 289 at 4 weeks 1 day, 445 at 4 weeks 3 days, and 467 at 4 weeks 5 days.  I know in all liklihood that this is a bad sign, but is there still any possibility at all that things could turn around and still be good?  My doctor says I am either going to miscarry, or I have an ectopic and will need methotrexate.  I will get my beta drawn again in the morning to see if it has dropped or continued to slowly rise.  I am looking at either waiting for my little tiny start of a baby to come out on it's own as a miscarriage, or having to halt it's growth with a drug, or possibly an MVA.  Is there ANY HOPE AT ALL that this could turn out well, or is this a 100% sure loss like my doctor said?  Has anyone heard of a beta rising by only 22 units like that?  I know people have miscarriages all the time, but I am scared- this would have been my first baby- and I don't know what to expect.  Any thoughts?

Thank you,
Polly
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Hi Polly on 8/16/18 at 5weeks my hcg read 180 I repeated it on 8/20/18 and it went up to 1420 I test again on 8/23 so please don't lose hope
Avatar universal
Anne,

Thank you for sharing with me about your journey. I had not considered the option you spoke of but was after reading your message. I went in for what I thought was my final beta count this morning and as a result I am sitting here stunned to be honest. My firt set of scores read 5992. The second count two days later read 7954.  THis was a doubling time of way over the outer bracket of 96 hours.  I went three days later and they have jumped upto 14032.

I had a ultrasound and it showed a sac and yoke but no fetal pole and I am right on six weeks.  Should I hope?

Tiffany
Helpful - 0
159047 tn?1213896873
Hi Tiffany,
I can definitely understand why you're concerned and why it feels so hopeless after what you've been through--I'm so sorry for your losses.  It is however possible that you could still have a very viable pregnancy.  I found this article because my own hcg levels have been in the low range and not doubling like they "ought" to:
http://blogs.webmd.com/pregnancy-and-infertility/ (scroll down to HCG levels...).

According to another article, http://www.americanpregnancy.org/duringpregnancy/hcglevels.html
15% of normal pregnancies don't double like they ought to.  

I'm 42 years old, I have a healthy 2 yr old ds, recently had a miscarriage in July(no hcg testing done prior to m/c starting), and I'm currently 7.5 weeks pregnant (had non-doubling, but rising hcg #'s and we saw a heartbeat last week).  During my pregnancy with my ds, I never had any of this testing done (worried a lot less too), but my guess is my hcg levels were probably similar since I never felt sick during that pregnancy either.  

From what I can gather in talking to my doctor and reading articles from a couple different doctors on the web, once you see/hear a heartbeat, there's a 90% chance that you'll carry the baby to term--no matter what your hcg levels were in the beginning of your pregnancy.

Please don't give up!  Stay positive and try not to worry too much.  I hope you end up having a healthy full-term pregnancy.  
Helpful - 0
134578 tn?1693250592
So glad to hear your numbers went up!!! Usually I do tell people who are sure they are having a m/c that they should wait because often the early ultrasounds are just too darn early.  Your letter was just so sure that I didn't get that point in.  Good work, and it sounds like you'll have to keep that other option on the back burner for now. :)  Hooray!
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134578 tn?1693250592
Well, honey, the door is not totally shut; there is one other option if you decide your eggs are too old to succeed.  It's not as desirable at first glance, but it worked for me.  You can do IVF with a donor egg.  You choose the donor, and can choose one that resembles you and is younger.  It got me amazing results when I truly had given up, and even had some advantages -- I carry the baby and so feel very bonded and connected to him, yet he doesn't get any of the genetic medical problems in my family such as osteoporosis and macular degeneration.  (To make myself feel better about the loss of a genetic link to me, I even chose a donor who is taller than me, LOL.)  In all seriousness, I am so moved by the generosity of the young women who are willing to make these donations, the nursing student who provided our egg has made me and my husband so happy, all the more so for how long we tried and because we had truly given up.  So the old adage of a door being shut but a window being open was definitely true for us.  You might just keep this in the back of your mind as a possibility, not to go for now but just to know it is there.  All the best, Annie
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Avatar universal
I so sorry I didnt see your message untill now.  Thank you for that and I am praying......

Tiffany
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you Anne,

It feels good to know someone knows my story.  I have been in for extensive testing and the specialist said nothing was wrong and that for me it was a case of russian rullette.  That left me feeling worse.  I feel if the eggs have something missing at say the five week period then there is a high chance I may carry eggs a little to old to produce a live baby( Im now thirty nine thought i lost my first at 35ish.  Its knowing I have exhausted all avenues and still have no answers that hurts the most.  

Once agian, thank you for taking the time to hear my cry.

Tiffany
Helpful - 0
134578 tn?1693250592
Hi, Tiffany;

I had a vanished twin.  I empathise with the feeling that the doctors don't really seem to care, and they just send you home with a shrug.  I don't defend them in this attitude; it is cold and unsympathetic and really reprehensible in someone specializing in obstetrics.  All I can say in their defense is that if a baby is failing, there is nothing they can do at that stage, and doctors want to be able to do something, and feel just as helpless as anyone else if they can't (maybe even more).  At the early, early stage it is all up to the baby, there is no miracle, no surgery ... the problem is usually that the day the baby was created (the day the sperm met the egg) something was lost in the connection, and the baby was able to go along until a certain point and when it needed that missing thing, it was not there, and the baby faded.  It doesn't make you love the little child less, or feel any less like a life was lost, but it isn't in the doctors' hands either at the five to eight week point. (Unless, of course, you are deficient in some easily measureable thing that can be supplemented, or are drinking a gallon of wine a night and should stop, or something else a doc should ask about and fix, which I know is not the case for you).  All you can do is grieve, and develop a way to remember your lost angels, and go in for testing and explain to your doctors that this is happening over and over again at the same point and you need testing and answers.  I am so sorry for your repeated loss.  Even a vanished twin is a mixed blessing; you still have the one but the other is gone, and you grieve the one who left.  So please bear up and thank you for your letter, and see if you can find someone who will give you real answers.  (((HUGS)))  Annie
Helpful - 0
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