uterine scarring after a D&C

[kris71]

i had a D&C on July 1. I was 8 weeks along and baby stopped growing at 6 weeks 4 days. There was no heartbeat.  I had no bleeding therefore dr recommended the D&C. 8 weeks after that D&C, i still have not had a period. I started having bad cramping on wed that turned into bad abdominal pain by yesterday afternoon. I went in to see my dr today and he did an ultrasound which revealed what looked like lots of blood clots in my uterus. He seems to think that i may have uterine scarring that is preventing the blood from getting out. Anyone else have this happen? it seems very unusual to me and i'm freaking out.

[mhv]

am so glad he did a hysteroscopy!  That is so the right answer!  i feel so much better now!
my  scarring is in the worst spot the fundus... that is where the embryo implants, it is the least likely spot for re-scarring.  But causes the most problems getting pregnant, becaue the embryo needs to find a healthy spot to attach to. The cervix is the most likely to reform they think because it's so close together But, it is the best to have because it doesn't interfer with conceiving/pregnancy.

I had my follow up as a saline sono also to make sure my scarring hadn't reoccured.

I do know that you have to watch when you do get pregnant, you have to watch for cevix measuring... I'm not sure what that is about, but again, if you join Asherman's and present your story, they will tell you what you need to look for.

Please join Ashermans.org.  The woman there will tell you every step of the way what to look for!  

[kris71]

I had a hysterscopy this morning. The dr found scarring covering my uterus opening. Once he poked through it and cleaned it out - the blood came flowing out. He said he didn't see any other scarring in my uterus. I will be going for a follow up in a couple of weeks to see if the scar came back. i believe i will have a saline sono. How is this going to impact my chances of conceiving and/or having an embryo transfer.

[AnnieBrooke]

My ultrasound-guided D&C *was* a hysteroscopy.  Possibly the "C" in D&C is misleading, but that is what my doctor called it.  But she had the camera and the scissors, as well as being ultrasound-guided.

[mhv]

You can also have a hysteroscopy done to see what is going on inside of your utuerus.

But, I do know that the ladies on Ashermans.org advise AGAINST doing another dnc to remove adhesions (because that is what caused the scarring in the first place)  and recommend doing a hysteroscopy (This is a scope with a camera, and look directly at your uterus) and using sissors to remove adhesions.  Hopefully if you do have scarring the scarring will only be in your cervical area as that is the easiest to treat.
Please join Ashermans.org for information on this.  I hope maybe you just have clots blocking your cervical area, and I honestly don't know anything about that, but hope the clots can be removed and everything is back to normal.  

You can also go to youtube and put in removing uterine adhesions and there are some videos from the best doctors in the world that treat ashermans telling how they recommend removing adhesions....

Please update me Kris!  I want to hear what they say!!!!

[AnnieBrooke]

You might check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherman%27s_syndrome

[AnnieBrooke]

I'm sorry for your loss.  You might google Asherman's Syndrome...it is scarring in the uterus and when it comes, it can particularly come when there is a time lag between the demise of the embryo and the removal of the embryo from the uterus.  Asherman's is not seen all the time but it is not unheard of either.  The way to get it correctly diagnosed is through a uterine MRI.  An ultrasound cannot tell you much about the state of the tissue in the uterus, but an MRI can.  I didn't have Asherman's, but I did have some tissue remaining from a miscarriage that caused some scarring, and once we got this diagnosed via an MRI, I had an ultrasound-guided D&C to remove the scarring.  If there was any scarring after your miscarriage and D&C, and it was in the area of your cervix, it is possible that it blocked the cervix as the doctor seems to think and made it impossible for the endometrium to drain normally as a period.  Scarring after a miscarriage is not entirely uncommon; the part of your story that is a little more unusual is for the scarring to cause there to be no outlet for the fluid from a period.  But I'm sure it can happen like that.

Anyway, if the MRI does reveal that is what happened, don't fear.  The scar tissue can be removed by an ultrasound-guided D&C,  and you will be back in the shape you were before.

[adgal]

Most of the time D&C's are able to be performed without any issues.  I myself have had two.  But scarring is always a possibility.  I didn't have this myself, but there is a member here named AnnieBrooke who went through this, and I am sure she will be chiming in.  I believe she had it taken care of through a relatively simple procedure, but I do not know all the details.  Try not to worry, this does happen from time to time and they can take care of it.  I'm sorry for your loss..and now this on top of it must be so frightening.