Ivf turned into ectopic pregnancy

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1

Hello,

For many years I have tried to become pregnant, I found out after a lap & dye that my left fallopian tube was blocked. while I was going through the process of getting referred for ivf I became pregnant naturally for the first time in my life, this unfortunately led to a miscarriage. After that I did a round of ivf with an ex partner we managed to get 4 embryo to freeze but I couldn’t do a fresh transfer because I had fluid that could of caused a miscarriage. 2 weeks before my frozen embryo transfer I made a very tough decision to split up with my partner at the time. I am with a new partner now and have just gone privately with a fertility clinic in Manchester after collecting 8 mature eggs only 3 fertilised. I had a 12 cell embryo on day 3 and was advised to have tranfer on day 3, two days later I get a phone call to say my other embryos didn’t make it to freeze so my only chance of been pregnant was with the embryo I had transferred. I took a test everyday to see that second line over and over my hcg was doubling nicely every 48hours but then to my horror I started light bleeding brown (sorry tmi) my clinic told me to do bloods so I did my hcg was still doubling but I knew somthing wasn’t right so I went to the EPAU for a scan and they told me my embryo implanted into my left tube and I was sent for emergency surgery in the matter of hours they removed my left tube (the blocked one with the pregnancy) and i was left in hospital not been able to see my partner after what I had just gone through! I experienced my first panic attack not just once but twice while I was in hospital and now I’m left with no pregnancy, no tube, scars on my belly and nightmares most night and i can’t help being so down about everything and now I don’t even know what to do anymore I feel like I’m never going to be a mother. Have I done something so terrible in my life for me to be punished this badly :cry:

I just wanted to know if there is anyone who has gone through ivf and had to deal with this and what did you do next xx

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Dear Chloe,

I am so sorry to hear of your ectopic pregnancy and losses. To experience one loss is difficult, to deal with multiple losses is heartbreaking and my heart truly goes out to you, especially after everything you have been through.

When we experience ectopic pregnancy we are suddenly faced with a life threatening emergency and it’s treatment, reduction in fertility, concerns about the future and the loss of our babies. Experiencing any one of these is an ordeal, putting them together is immense and your feelings are completely normal.

Sadly there is no way to prevent an ectopic pregnancy from happening and unfortunately there is a risk even with IVF, but I cannot stress enough that non of this is your fault. I know that when I had my ectopic pregnancy I also looked for a reason and almost automatically we tend to blame ourselves. From the bottom of my heart, there is nothing you could have done to prevent the ectopic pregnancy from happening. I cannot emphasise enough - you are not to blame.

If and when you feel ready, I would advise speaking to your fertility specialist to discuss options. In the meantime, be kind to yourself and allow time to grieve, to heal both physically and emotionally. We will be here for you for as long as you need.

Sending much love and warm hugs,

Karen x

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Hi Chloe,

My name is Susan. I’m 33 years old and I also have ectopic pregnancy from IVF fresh transfer. We have been trying to conceive for more than 18 months, started first IVF cycle in February this year. On our second IVF cycle we managed to have 3 embryos, 1 fresh transfer and 2 frozen. After 5 days post transfer I had my period (or bleeding that is exactly like my normal period), same amount of bleeding, same number of days. So I thought the embryo didn’t implant. I was told to come in 1 day earlier than my original test date because of the bleeding, and my hcg was 9, so the nurse said maybe miscarriage and told me to test again in 2 days. Second hcg test the result is 28, which is still very super low but it had gone up. Few days later hcg jumped to 330, and I was told to do an ultrasound. All this time I didn’t have any pain, so the fertility doctor wasn’t sure what was happening.

At the scan ectopic pregnancy was confirmed on my right tube, I was shocked, scared and cried my eyes out in the clinic. Eventually I was referred to Emergency, did another blood test and hcg level was 540. This was when they gave me the Methotrexate shot to hopefully shrink the pregnancy. This was yesterday, I was told to come back in few days and next weekto have blood test.

So yes I was shocked that ectopic pregnancy can be possible with IVF, even though the odds are only 1-2%. I am now hoping the MTX works, will only find out with time. I wish it would have happened differently for us both, but we will get through this!

Sending hugs and love

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Hi Susan

Just a question did you get scanned when your hcg levels were only 330 and it confirmed ectopic? I’m just asking because my levels were at 875 on a Wednesday and I was bleeding but they said they will do another blood test again on Friday which was 1200 then scan me on Monday but I wanted them to scan me on Saturday because if it was another ectopic I wanted them to pick it up straight away so I didn’t lose my left tube as my right tube had erupted 2 years ago but they said they didn’t do scans at the weekend only emergency but I class it as an emergency as I was bleeding and I’m high risk but they didn’t scan me until Monday which unfortunately was another ectopic then 5 days later it had erupted as I believe the jab was given to late as it did start to work but it was to late.

Did they only scan you because you were bleeding? And was it straight away when your levels were at 330?

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Hi Hols,

They did book me in for a scan when my hcg hit 330, the scan was actually the next day (when later hcg was 540), it took the nurse a while to find the mass (the ectopic) but it was definitely confirmed on my right tube. It was measured 10mm. I guess it was ivf so I was closely monitored, and I did have the period like bleeding, together with spotting and light bleeding a few days before the scan. My hcg was very low from the start maybe that’s why they think I need the scan at that point.

So sorry to hear about your tube ruptured, I just got the jab 3 days ago, my first blood test tmr.

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Hi Hols. I was monitored for pregnancy of unknown location which turned out to be ectopic a while ago. My hcg levels were very low but they were able to find pregnancy in my tube with hcg around 220 (however that was 4th scan I had over 2 weeks).

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Dear Chloe,

I’m so sorry to hear what you are going through. Know that you are not alone. Like you, we have been trying for years to get pregnant, turned to IVF (donor conception due to other heartbreaking factors), got 3 fertilised eggs, 1 top quality embryo (the others didn’t make it), day 3 transfer and now an ectopic pregnancy in my left tube. I find it hard to believe so much has happened to us while others seem to sail through. It feels like something has gone wrong for us at every turn. I hope you are recovering and beginning to feel a little better after your surgery. I am interested to hear how you are getting on and coping. I started with ‘expectant management’ - they didn’t want to rush in to medication or surgery because of everything we have already been through over the years. But my HCG is rising so I’m going in to see the consultant tomorrow. xx