Worried about heartbeat - 6 weeks 3 days

[Holdingontohope36]

I was hoping someone might be able to help. Yesterday, I went for a scan at 6 weeks 3 days and was told that the fetus measured 4.4mm and they could see cardiac activity/a heart flicker (which I also saw on the screen) but it was too small to measure the heartbeat. Is this normal? I’m so worried there’s something wrong, as I keep hearing stories where people see the heartbeat earlier and it’s much stronger. I’ve had IVF, so very sure of dates, and I’m on immune treatment due to repeat miscarriage history so the clinic have upped my dosage to two steroid tablets a day (which has also worried me, as they changed my medication yesterday after the scan). I’m due back for another scan tomorrow but going out of my mind with worry.

[LCharlton]

That sounds absolutely fine for 6 weeks 3 days to me! Were the clinic concerned?

[Holdingontohope36 in reply to LCharlton]

Ah bless you for responding to my message - you probably remember me as the anxious girl from last week, whose 1mm foetus hadn’t grown (you kindly replied with some reassurance). So, it did grow in the end - we went in on Sunday and it had grown to 3mm and had another scan yesterday, at which point it had reached 4.4mm. My clinic are big on monitoring, as you can probably see, but all this info is driving me mad with anxiety. The doctor who did the scan seemed confident that it had grown and looked clearer than it had done. She said it was just too small to measure heart rate but said not to worry about it. Then in the afternoon a nurse at the clinic called with my hcg result (I did a blood test yesterday morning) and was happy with that result, but said that the doctor was upping my steroids and this was to try and get ‘a stronger heartbeat’. So they are obviously concerned that it’s not strong yet. I feel like every clinic visit/scan is the most nerve-wracking thing ever and keep fearing the worst.

[LCharlton in reply to Holdingontohope36]

Quick rule of thumb - if it measures the same number of mm or higher as the number of days you're over 6 weeks, that's totally fine. I know it's stressful but do try and reassure yourself - so much anxiety isn't great for you! And this isn't sounding worrying to me right now tbh xx

[Hidden in reply to LCharlton]

Does this mean that if I was 6+3 in my last scan, but the baby measured 6+0 (3.28mm), it's ok? I was worried for measuring 3 days behind. Heartbeat was 112 and they said that's strong for this early state.

[LCharlton in reply to Hidden]

I'm not a doctor!! But I was researching this a lot when I had a fetal pole that was measuring too small - unfortunately that did end up in a miscarriage, but I was still at 3mm in week 7, which is definitely too small. From what I read, 3mm or more at 6+3 is ok. Fingers crossed for you xx