Ectopic pregnancy last week, just need some advice

Hi, I’m just on here to ask for advice, or if anyone has experienced the same thing as me. The hospital never gave me a lot of information

I started spotting at 6 weeks pregnant and was referred to epau, by this time I had been spotting for 4 days.I had a scan which showed my uterus was empty but they could see something around 1.4cm on my right side. My bloods showed a hcg level of 106 and progesterone level of 35. I was asked to come back in 48 hours for more bloods. These next set of bloods showed that my hcg levels had dropped down to 15. I then had to go back 72 hours later for more bloods. The third set of bloods my hcg levels were 14.1. By this time I had been spotting for a week. I wasn’t having any intense pain and apart from the shock of what happened I was ok. The nurse told me to take a home pregnancy test in a week and if it still came back positive I needed to come back.

Today a week after my initial first scan I have now started bleeding bright red. I’m not in any intense pain just feels like period cramps. But this isn’t really like period flow, it’s constant but not clotty. Is this normal or to be expected? Have my levels gone to zero and my period started or is my body just expelling what is left?

Dear kyliewhite13,

I am so sorry to hear of your ectopic pregnancy and loss,

To answer your question, it sounds as though this is the first bleed that occurs after ectopic pregnancy​. It is the body’s response to falling hormone levels because you are sadly no longer pregnant. The body expels the lining of the uterus that had built up in preparation for the pregnancy because it is no longer needed. This process involves vaginal bleeding - it can be clotty or like one of your usual periods and some women have bleeding/spotting for up to six weeks.

It is a good idea to keep a close eye on your bleeding and using sanitary pads helps judge this. If you are soaking more than a pad in an hour, you should get medical attention.

It sounds as though you have been treated using expectant management and we have further information here-

http://www.ectopic.org.uk/patients/treatment/

Sending much love,

Karen x


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