Pregnancy 14 weeks: Retrochorial hematoma in placenta and bleeding.

[Rex2021]

Today I had the harmony test. I asked the senographer to check my placenta as I had already two bloods losses in the last 3 weeks. She found retrochorial hematoma in the placenta: 12.5mm, 6.7, 23.0mm. Anyone had the same experience? Thank you

[phoebeswan]

I've not had bleeding, but was also told I had a large 'retrochorial heamatoma' on the placenta. Struggling to find out any more information about that which is how I came across this post. Did you get any further helpful information/answers? Hope your pregnancy is continuing well! ☺️

[Rex2021 in reply to phoebeswan]

Hi! This hematoma was first detected on a Saturday and because I was still bleeding I managed to get an appointment at my local EPAU on Tuesday after. On this day, they repeated the ultrasound and the hematoma was gone. Although I was happy about this outcome, the bleeding only stopped the week after. In total, I bled for 15 days. During this time, I read a lot about hematomas and the doctor also told me that placenta hematomas tend to be re-absorbed by the body and evacuated through bleeding. Maybe my case was the latter. If I were you, I would keep monitoring to see its evolution. All the stories I read had a happy end, but they were closely monitored until the hematoma disappears. At some point, I managed to speak to an important doctor and she said it is not proven that taking progesterone makes any difference or that bed rest has any advantage in this situation. However, several women chose to go to bed resting until it disappears just in case. You might find professionals that will not take you seriously, but keep your determination.

[phoebeswan in reply to Rex2021]

Thank you for the reply and I'm so sorry to hear that you've been through such a worrying time, 15 days of bleeding must of been really horrible for you! It's reassuring to hear that progesterone or bed rest don't make a difference because that's what I was worrying about, is there something else I should be doing to prevent miscarriage. I have another scan booked for something else tomorrow and then one in three weeks, hopefully that's enough to monitor it, I will ask them more about it. Best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy, I hope it goes more smoothly for you from now on!

[Rex2021 in reply to phoebeswan]

Just one note regarding bed rest. Although the doctors I encountered tended to say that it did does not make a difference, I still did bed resting from Saturday to Tuesday which was 'easy' for me because the bleeding made me weak anyway. The other two women I know whose hematomas took longer to disappear also did bed resting just in case. That said, I don't if they would have achieved the same result without bed rest. I hope all goes well for you

[phoebeswan]

Ok, that's interesting, I guess it doesn't hurt to take it easy, complete bedrest would be hard for me as I have a toddler! I just wondered if you knew what the difference between a retrochorial and a subchorionic hematoma is? There seems to be lots of information on the later but not so much on retrochorial, I don't even understand what that word means, or whether it's more or less serious than subchorionic!! 🙈

[Rex2021]

In my case, I did not do absolute bed rest. I managed to do small domestic tasks like dishwashing and a few simple meals. I just avoided my daily 40 min. walks and tried to spend as much time in bed or sofa as possible. Regarding the difference between both types of hematoma, I understood that it is related to its location in relation to the placenta. I noticed that scientific literature makes distinctions between both types of hematoma. However, whenever I was speaking to medical professionals about it, they all seemed rather confused and no one was able to tell me the difference. I wish I had asked that question to the sonographer who first identified it in a private scan. However, when she said 'ah, this hematoma might explain your bleeding', she was so relaxed and not worried that I thought it was irrelevant. I only began to worry about it at night, when I opened the letter of the ultrasound notes, read it, and then started googling about it. I would speak to your local EPAU or GPs. Mumsnet has, at least, two posts about it, but one of them is not very helpful (try a different spelling of the word 'retrochorial' to find them, like removing the h) I would share the links with you, but the website seems to be down at the moment.