when does your clinic do 1st scan?

[cbaker111]

Hi -
I am in sort of an unusual situation. I had by IVF done in Brazil, where DH is currently and where I will be living again starting in December. I am not back in the US for some job training and am being followed at a clinic here - not the one that did the IVF obviously. They have scheduled me for a scan on 9/6, which would be 6 weeks, 1 day. I would have to do this alone as DH is in Brazil. However, at 8 weeks I will be in Brazil visiting DH and could get the first scan done there instead. Between 6 weeks and 8 weeks I will be traveling somewhere else and can't get a scan done. I am a nervous wreck and would like to get more info ASAP but am worried that at 6 weeks, 1 day they might not be able to see anything anyhow, plus I would be there alone. If I wait until 8 weeks, I have an extra 2 weeks of not knowing how things are progressing but the results might be more accurate plus DH would be there with me. What would you all advise? When do your clinics do the first scans? How accurate are scans at 6 weeks? Is there a chance I could get unnecessarily alarmed if there is no HB or if there is nothing at 6 weeks is that pretty much "game over"?
Claudia

[PebblesUK]

Hi Claudia

My clinic does scans at 7 weeks and at 9 weeks, then they discharge you. I had a scan at 6 weeks as I was in a lot of pain but they only saw a sac and nothing else, I've since found out (through the lovely people on here) that that's quite common at 6 weeks but waiting another week for the other scan was awful. I was convinced the baby had died. The 7 week scan showed the heartbeat and everything was great.

There are quite a few women on here who have had the same and most of them have had the heartbeat by 7 weeks.

I would be stuck if I was you. We are all desperate to know the baby is ok and how many there are but 6 weeks is too early to see the heartbeat (although some people do) and if you don't another 2 weeks to wait to make sure everything is ok will be agonising for you.

I'd wait to see what other people post then relay it back to dh and make the decision together.

Best of luck

Jo
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[sue e]

Hi,

me personally i would stick with the 6 weeks scan, i had mine at 6 weeks 3 days and we saw the heartbeat, also they were able to tell were exactly it had implanted itself, after having an ectopic (naturally prior to ivf) this was a major concern for me, so straight away there was some relief. Even if it is a little early they can normally tell if things are progressing as they would expect, size etc. having said all that i am one of those girls that just needed to know, so i could deal with it one way or another.


good luck, with whatever you decide.

sue e xx

[kristiA]

I had my first at 7 wks & 3 days....then my 2nd at 8 wks & 3 days. At the 7 week scan they could see both heartbeats (twins). It does sound like a tough decision for you deciding between 6 & 8. Do you get advice from any of the doctors you are working with? I don't know which to tell you to do either. Maybe do both the 6 & 8....and go into it knowing that at the 6 week one you likely won't see the heartbeats yet, but at least you would know things are progressing as they should. Then do the 8 with your DH to see the heartbeat.

[cbaker111]

Thanks for your thoughts. I like the idea of going for the 6 week scan knowing that it might be too early to see much. DH is leaning towards waiting and doing it at 8 weeks in Brazil but he is not here to see me slowly losing my mind! Not a pretty sight! If I go at 6 weeks and don't see a heartbeat, I am sure that I will spend the entire following two weeks on the internet looking for statistics about what percentage of viable pregnancies show heartbeats at 6 weeks. Maybe I can see if the clinic here in San Francisco has an affiliate in New York where I could get the scan done the following week (which would be about 7 weeks) and do an other HCG level for me next week - then the scan would be more accurate but I wouldn't have to wait a whole additional two weeks. I'm going to talk to my MD here in San Francisco on Tuesday to make the final decision.
Thanks again for the thoughts,
Claudia

[cbaker111]

I couldn't wait until Tuesday and talked to the doctor today. She said that you can see a heartbeat at 6 weeks in only about 50% of normal pregancies, but that they would still like me to come in for the scan to make sure that the pregnancy is in the uterus (and not ectopic) before I go traveling for three weeks. She said that she understands that not seeing a heartbeat might freak me out but that they would try to reassure me and encourage me to get a scan when I am in Brazil two weeks later. Seems to make sense and I hadn't thought about the ectopic angle. So I will go on the 6th. Now, if I can only master not completely going to pieces if they don't see a heartbeat!
Claudia

[kristiA]

Claudia, that sounds like a good plan! So with stats of only 50% seeing the heartbeat at 6 weeks, you absolutely can't let you self go crazy during those two weeks. Prepare yourself now. Tell yourself not to expect to see the heartbeat at 6 weeks....get used to that idea and then maybe you won't be disappointed or worry during that 2 weeks until the 8 week one.

Best of luck! Keep us posted!

[Kabillion]

My clinic did my first scan exactly 1 month after Egg restrieval. That turned out to be about 2 weeks after my first beta test.

[Zed2003]

Hi there,

Like Jo, my clinic do the first scan at around 7 weeks, then if all is well they discharge you.

Good luck with what you decide!
Zoe

[JustinesBaby]

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[cbaker111]

Thanks to all of you for your support and thoughts - I had the scan today (6 weeks, 1 day) and they saw a heartbeat of 124!! I was so excited. Does anyone have any statistics on how likely pregnancies are to continue once they find a heartbeat? What is a normal heartbeat at this point? I still feel like I need a lot of reassurance! The clinic where I am seen didn't do my cycle and are not that invested in my care I don't think (I had my cycle done in Brazil and will only be with this clinic until the end of this month.) I have another scan in 2 weeks. Also, I can't figure out how to get a ticker on here, even after visiting the other website - any hints??!! I am very inept at things like this!
Claudia

[PebblesUK]

Claudia

I'm so happy for you. I said you will see the heartbeat after all this!! Don't know much about the heart rate, my clinic doesn't tell you but from what I've read on here anything over 100 is good.

Ticker - go to tickerfactory.com, click on pregnancy, click the dot next to the rule you want, then click on next, do the same for the ticker slider, then next, put in your due date then today's date and time (just the hour), then next. You then need to paste the letters in the first box which is the bbcode. Then come back to this site and paste that into your profile, underneath where you put Claudia.

I hope this helps, any problems just shout!

Jo
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[JustinesBaby]

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[cbaker111]

Thanks for the support and congratulations! I am STILL struggling with the ticker thing - I can't figure out where to paste the link once I create the ticker. What box exactly am I supposed to paste it in? I pasted it where it says website and where is says signature on the profile screen and then clicked on submit but nothing seems to happen!
Thanks,
Claudia

[cbaker111]

Finally! Got it - thanks!