How was your first trimester miscarriage handled?

[Anonymous]

I am trying to find out if I should be concerned...I recently had a miscarriage, the doctor thinks I was about 4 weeks pregnant, but I was never examined. It's a long story, and I am in the process of searching for a new OB because of this situation, but I spoke to a doctor on the phone for about 10 minutes, but other than that was not told to come in for an exam at any point. I have seen posts on here for women who had D & C's in similar situations, and I am worried. I had the miscarriage about 6 weeks ago, and just had a fairly normal period so I figured I was doing OK. Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

First, I'm sorry for your loss. I had a miscarriage a few weeks ago at 8 weeks and never saw a doctor after the miscarriage (I did have an exam and sono before, while fetus was alive). I decided to have a natural miscarriage. I think a natural miscarriage as opposed to a d & c at 4 weeks is probably what most doctors would prefer. I was also a bit surprised that I never had an exam after the miscarriage and wondered if it was normal. I did go in for bloodwork right after the miscarriage to make sure my hcg levels were dropping, which they were. I have heard from other women that it's important to keep having bloodwork until the hcg levels drop to zero, that way you know the miscarriage is complete and no tissue remains. So my only recommendation would be to ask your doctor if you should get some bloodwork to confirm.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry for your loss. I suffered a miscarriage almost two months ago. My situation is different since I did IVF and they were already monitoring me closely. Since I wasn't very far along, I opted for passing the fetus naturally rather than having a D&C. In my case they could never find the baby's heartbeat, so I new I was going to have a miscarriage before I had any of the symptoms. I was given the option for the D&C, but the doc didn't really press it since I wasn't very far along. He said they recommend it more for women who are beyond 8 weeks or so. He did ask me to come back for monitoring afterwards, but he admitted that they were being ultra-cautious. The main reason to watch the HCG level drop to zero is to make sure you don't have a certain type of tumor, but in my case my doc admitted that they already knew I didn't have the tumor. Anyway, I went back enough to watch that my HCG levels were dropping, but I didn't watch them go all the way to zero and my doc didn't hassle me about it.

To put things in perspective, a generation ago, they didn't even see pregnant moms until they were 2 months along. Since I think about 80% of all miscarriages happen with in the 1st two months, that means most miscarriages were unmonitored and never documented.

[Anonymous]

I didn't have a D&C, but did go in for bloodwork to make sure my HCG levels got back to normal.

[Anonymous]

I've had two miscarriages, both ending up at GW's emergency room. I never had a D&C, but the doctors moved things along. They gave me ultrasounds to see if any matter was left. I also had to go in for blood work a few days or a week later to check HCG levels. Sorry for your loss.

[Anonymous]

I had my first m/c at 12 weeks; the fetus had stopped developing a few weeks earlier. I had a D&C for that one.

My next m/c was at 7 weeks; I went into the office for an ultrasound that showed no baby and got to skip the D&C, which was my preference. I had to have my hCG levels monitored for a few weeks to make sure eveything was gone.

I'm sorry you're going through this. It's rough.

[Anonymous]

I had a miscarriage and D&C at week 9 since nothing 'moved' on its own.

The main thing is (I agree with previous posters) to have your bloodwork done to see that the HCG is back to normal - below ten.

The HCG doesn't have anything to do with a tumor (it can be elevated for molar pregnancies etc.) but for your body to stop "thinking" you're pregnant it's important it's back to normal so you can start trying again.

I had to go in for weekly bloodtests, oddly enough I heard from other women who didn't go in at all for bloodwork after a D&C, not sure why...