Help...early miscarriage and feeling neglected by our clinic

[TeacherD]

I'd be really grateful if someone could share their knowledge/experience on the following. We had a 5 day blastocyst (3ab) transfer a few weeks ago. 7 days after transfer we tested positive (at home pregnancy test). I began spotting on day 8 and bleeding heavily on day 9 post transfer. Our beta HCG (15 days after transfer) was 24. We were told this was a positive but not at the level they would have expected at our stage and that we were likely to be having an early miscarriage. The clinic advised us to wait 7 days before completing another at home pregnancy test.

At this point my mental and physical health was deteriorating pretty quickly...bleeding was taking it's toll on me as was the inevitable 'what if' even when my heart and head was telling me it was not going to be a good outcome. I decided to go to my GP and get another HCG done within 48 hour as a close friend, who has been through multiple rounds of IVF(both successful and unsuccessful), advised us that our clinic was not providing adequate aftercare. Another midwife I know was also appalled with the clinic not taking us in for any blood tests to monitor HCG or progesterone throughout. Our results came back and our HCG was 5 so we have learnt that we have lost our little embaby without having to wait another 5 days like our clinic advised.

Is there a standard protocol for IVF in the UK or Northern Ireland or is it at the discretion of the clinic? We are a bit puzzled as to why our clinic didn't follow up with us and it is making me question whether something could have been spotted to support this pregnancy. We have invested a huge chunk of money in going privately and we know that there isn't alway good news at the end of it but I feel cheated by our clinic. Is it normal to receive more follow up care than we have received?

[Kitkat10]

Sadly, I had a similar experience with my clinic. I had an anembryonic pregnancy which was seen on scan at 7 weeks and ended in mmc. The clinic never really took the time to explain what had happened. I asked my GP and she took the time to explain why these mmc happen.

Then the next pregnancy I had some spotting within the 2ww but had a BFP.

I was so scared another mmc was happening, I begged my clinic for a HCG but they declined and told me to ‘wait and see at the 7 week scan?!?’

I had just paid them £16k and they couldn’t have been less interested in helping me. I went to my GP who was amazing and sent me to EPAU for HCG and they did 2 bloods 48h apart, then a scan at 5 weeks and above all, they listened to my worries, were really supportive and caring and helped me through an anxious time. I am still a bit appalled by my clinics lack of aftercare. I thought about writing to HFEA to complain as there had been a catalogue of errors.

Instead, I wrote a thank you card to my GP and EPAU nurse when my daughter was born and decided to ‘let it go’ regarding the clinic, but it still saddens me that they were so heartless. So I feel for you, I think it can feel very cold.

I’m so sorry you are going through this. You should have a follow up consultation FOC with your consultant during which you may wish to ask some questions. I didn’t get much reward from my follow ups but it did give me the opportunity to ask questions.

Good luck with everything going forward xx

[Twiglet2]

I am so so sorry you had an early loss they are heartbreaking, just to reassure you there is absolutely nothing you or your clinic could have done to change the outcome 😢 I have had quite a few chemical pregnancies too (so many I have actually lost count!) my clinic do an HCG sometimes if I am still getting strong positive tests at home with bleeding but mostly they just say retest in a week at home if the line is fading or I am bleeding if it’s early and I have my answer. I know there is nothing they can do to stop the chemical pregnancy happening and I test at home long before the week is out and usually have my answer quicker. My clinic never have monitored progesterone. This sounds fairly standard from my experience. Some clinics might do HCGs more regularly but they tend to be private clinics I think and it doesn’t change the outcome unfortunately just maybe find out a bit quicker, although home pregnancy tests do the same job for me without the hassle of going to the clinic. Defo speak to your clinic about your concerns around how they have treated you if you feel it will help you move on but please please don’t think there is anything that could have stopped it happening from anyone as there wasn’t 😢 sending you love and strength xx

[Doodlebug23]

With my chemical I tortured myself with wondering if something could have been done to maintain the pregnancy. But there isn’t. I hope you can take some comfort from the fact nothing could have been done to prevent/stop it.

I also took some positive from the fact that “something happened”, the embryo implanted but it just wasn’t the one.

[Endofitall]

I am so sorry. Emotional support is lacking in many places unfortunately. I’m glad your GP was good. Give yourself time to grieve 💛

[Boo718]

hello I’m so sorry your going through this. I wasn’t uk but we were always checked hcg levels 48 hours after to see if it had doubled. I have had a few chemical pregnancies with numbers not quite high enough for the time and they have never asked me to wait a week xxx

[CyclingAddict]

Sorry to hear this. I've had a chemical pregnancy before (the embryo was a 3bc) and, because of the quality of the embryo, my clinic organised a HCG test after I tested positive. At that point, my HCG levels were just below what they would expect and there was a possibility that it would still be OK, so they asked that I repeat it in a couple of days. It was increasing, but not by much. They then asked me to repeat again in a couple of days and it actually started to decrease. At this point, they didn't know whether it was ectopic or not, but they knew it wasn't viable, so they scanned me (couldn't see anything) and offered me an injection that would dissolve the embryo if it was ectopic. They said they would only need to test me again if I didn't start bleeding in the next couple of days. I declined the injection - the injection really is horrible and can make you really quite ill. You're also not allowed to try and conceive for 6 months after taking the injection as it can lead to birth defects. I decided I'd wait it out and see if I miscarried naturally. Which I did. Based on my experience, there's not a lot the clinic could've done. If you're HCG levels were much lower than expected the best outcome is a natural miscarriage (as awful as that sounds). I was only offered extra testing because I was literally a couple of points under the threshold.

The one positive that came out of mine (although awful at the time) was that it showed that I could get pregnant and the protocol that I was on could work for me. I had an egg collection and repeated the same protocol with a higher quality PTG-A tested embryo and I'm now 35 weeks pregnant.

I know this doesn't make things any easier right now, but know there's nothing you could've done.

Sending you loads of luck x