Pregnant and low Papp-a levels

[LexiiH17]

Hello ladies!

So after a long TTC journey I’m now pregnant, 22 weeks on Thursday.

I had my 20 weeks scan at 19 weeks. And all is fine, measuring fine, all looked good. And we had our Down’s syndrome testing back and were very low risk.

However I got told my Papp-a levels are very low and anyone under .5 (if my memory serves me correctly) has to be monitored by way of extr scans and measurements etc. That is all that was told to me and I was told that it will be ok and it was nothing to worry about!

So I googled it... I know, I know dont ever google! But I did! And there’s mixed comments about it all really nothing points to a real definitive answer. But anyway I’ll get to the point. I’ve been feeling under the weather the past few days, headache I can’t shift, started feeling sicky again and so so so tired. Then today I started getting spots in my eyes.

Baby is fine, moving around can feel him kicking as usual so no concerns there. But should I be looking out for something for my health and long term babies health like this with a low Papp-a score???

Long post I know, sorry. Just feel really crappy and horrible and just have always had this horrible sinking feeling about this pregnancy. Be said it all along that something isn’t right. And I even say to my other half we need to be ready as baby won’t wait till 40 weeks.

It also doesn’t help that everyone keeps telling me I still don’t look pregnant and am I sure something isn’t wrong as I’m not big enough for my weeks!!

[VRT102]

Hi Lexii,

Honestly, don't worry too much I had low Papp-a with my second pregnancy and have a very healthy 5 week old boy! The extra scans are just a precaution as studies have found a potential link between low papp-a levels and reduced growth/early delivery. I spoke to my midwife and she said that the risk of anything actually going wrong is extremely low, in fact she's never seen it affect a pregnancy. I just had to take aspirin for the duration of the pregnancy and have extra scans, no issues arose.

If your scans have come back fine in terms of baby's growth and the blood flow to the baby then you're absolutely fine, so try not to worry so much. The subsequent scans will check that your baby's growth rate doesn't slow down, although that's quite unlikely (that's what my consultant said anyway). It really is nothing to worry about.

It's a hormone produced by the placenta so shouldn't affect your health. If you are feeling a bit rubbish then worth telling your GP/Midwife. Headaches and spots in your eyes could be blood pressure related?? I'm not a doctor of course so it's worth getting it checked out.

Good luck, hope you're feeling better soon

[Kate91]

I had a low Peppa score with bus second had now idea whatnot meant. Mum used to be a midwife and said it wasn't anything to worry too much about just means baby may be on small side and they will likely do regular scans in last trimester to keep an.eye on size. They thought my second ds would be really small as his brother was 6lb7 oz and with the low level they were concerned he was born atb7ln 13 oz so there was nothing to worry about

[Kate91 in reply to Kate91]

Also as for size don't worry with my first son of dropped down to a size 12 from a 16. We didn't know I was pregnant for the entire first trimester as I have always had irregular periods and we'd cremated my grandad. Went for my dating scan was told we were 20 weeks. I wasn't even showing at all then a week later if ballooned. It all depends on baby's position ds1 was practically hugging my spine. I started showing about 15 weeks with second and am about 11 weeks with 3rd now and already showing