I had my first EP in July through to August this year and opted for expectant management. I had one period in September which was heavier than usual and then a week before my October period was due I started spotting and passed a small clot, I thought my period was coming early and that my cycle was thrown by the ectopic, then it turned to brown spotting for a week, I took a pregnancy test two days before period was due and it was faintly positive. My automatic assumption was that it’s Ectopic again and I cried. I thought a positve test was supposed to be joyful, EP robbed me of that :(. This was how my first EP started but I had no pain or cramps this time. I continued to brown spot on and off for another 6 days and then on Wednesday it turned to bleeding exactly like my period. I took another test on Thursday (yesterday) afternoon and it was negative. Maybe this was a very early miscarriage and not an EP after all? It took a month for my HCG levels to return to normal last time. I have to wait til Wednesday for a scan but I feel they may not be able to tell me anything as it took them three scans to find it in my tube last time. I was also told on here that miscarriage after EP is very common, I had not heard that. I do hope it isn’t another EP. Does this sound more like a very early miscarriage?
Hello there
I am so sorry that it looks like you have recently lost another pregnancy 
Miscarriage after ectopic pregnancy is no more common than miscarriage generally, unfortunately the risk of miscarriage is very high it used to be cited as 1:5 but the miscarriage association now cite 1:4 and anecdotally doctors suspect it’s more like 1:3 so that means in real terms that for every 100 women who hear they are pregnant today only 60of them will go on to deliver a baby - 33 will statistically be lost in the first 12 weeks to miscarriage, between 1 and 2 will be ectopic some will be molar pregnancies, others chemical pregnancies and at least one will lend in a stillbirth or neonatal death and there may be one who has a condition not compatible with life and the parents have the very difficult choice to make as a result of the antenatal test results Those are hard facts to write and even harder to read but it kind of puts things in to perspective and means that in reality, only just over half the pregnancies for those 100 women today will result in a a baby to hold.
you are right by the way, ectopic pregnancy denies us the innocent pleasure of joy, when we are pregnant again, and it’s all part of the legacy of ectopic 
Unfortunately the scan probably won’t be able to tell you if this was a subsequent ectopic pregnancy which resolved without intervention (it’s estimated that about half of all ectopic pregnancies do self resolve) or if this was a subsequent miscarriage - However, in the grand scheme of things, statistically you are much less likely to experience a subsequent ectopic pregnancy (about 10%) than you are to experience a miscarriage (about 33%) if a pregnancy is lost at all.
Having said all that - I know that the facts and figures won’t right now make it a whole lot easier or better, but I hope that as you begin to recover, you’ll be able to take comfort from the fact that miscarriage is incredibly common and it’s probably just very bad luck
What is important now is you take care of yourself, allow yourself to grieve, as this loss will bring back all the sadness of your ectopic pregnancy earlier this year and that’s normal but just roll with it, until you begin to feel a little better.
We are here for you and sending you strength vibes and hugs. Thinking of you
Hi Krichyb,
I am so sorry to hear of your ectopic and so recently too I know what you’re going through so I had to post. I had my ectopic in February this year, it was awful Worst experience of my life. We had been trying for about 9 months and we were over the moon to be pregnant. Our happiness was short lived, not even a week later I was admitted to hospital and had emergency surgery to remove my right tube and my baby It took quite some time to recover but as soon as I was given the all clear to try again we started trying straight away. I fell pregnant very quickly and got my positive pregnancy test in May. I was obviously happy to be pregnant again but I didn’t have the same excitement or happiness this time round and I had a horrible feeling that this pregnancy wasn’t going to work out either. 5 days later I started bleeding and was quite certain I had miscarried I managed to get a scan for the next day and the Dr couldn’t really see anything on the screen. He could say that I had been pregnant and that it definitely wasn’t ectopic. I had bloods taken and over the course of the next few days my levels had dropped to almost 0. We were devastated but somehow seemed to get through it much better than the ectopic. It wasn’t as traumatic and I knew what was happening. I’m glad you have a scan booked. I see that it was the afternoon you took your test yesterday…it is possible that your urine was too diluted, the best time of day to test is first thing in the morning so it would do no harm to double check again in a morning. Seeing as your bleeding turned into your period though it does sound like an early miscarriage. I hope the time will pass quickly for your scan, I know how hard the waiting game is Anytime you want to chat you know where we are, xx
Thank you Izzie and Shellise, I am sorry to hear that you went through it all too I hope you are ok. I bled fully for only four days and now it has stopped. Just like my period but a bit more clotty (sorry TMI) I also took another pg test this morning and that was negative also and all pg symptoms have gone it seems it is all over. I don’t know whether I should go to the scan on Wednesday now as it’s over and they can’t tell me anything I don’t know already! I have a gynae appointment next Monday to discuss getting my tubes dyes and scanned to check for blockages. I feel this must have been an early miscarriage, it was different to my EP. Thank you, it really helps to talk to someone who has been through it, take care xx
Hi Krichyb,
Well after I had my miscarriage my consultant wated me to keep my scan appointment so they could check that ‘everything’ had come away and to check that I wouldn’t need a D&C or anything. From when I started bleeding though they took bloods every couple of days and by the time my scan came round my levels had dropped to 0 so they cancelled it. I wouldn’t cancel the scan yourself…take advice first because they may very well want you to go in to double check that you have completely miscarried and there is no pregnancy tissue remaining. You know where I am if you ever need to talk 
xx
It’s definitely worth having the scan to check that the uterine lining has normalised etc. I am so, so sorry you have had to go through this but it does sound like it was fairly quickly resolved and I am thankful for that, for you.
There are no restrictions to trying again after a miscarriage - so if and when you feel able … but give yourself time to grieve a little if you need to do that, I know I have needed to some of the time in the past but not always so trust your own instincts
Gentle hugs
Thank you Shellise and Izzie, I have been trying to call EPU this morning but the line is constantly busy. Will keep trying and if they want to cancel, it will free up the appointment for someone who really needs it. Have an appointment next Monday to discusss HSG as I requested a referall from my Dr straight after EP. I want to try again asap!