Slowing hcg levels

[akaAni]

I underwent a tubal reversal surgery in January after having my tubes tied 19 years ago. I am now 5 weeks pregnant. My hcg levels have been monitored over the past two weeks and have been rising accordingly (practically tripling each time) although an ultrasound has not been able to fully confirm a gestational sack. My last two hcg counts seem to indicate a slower rise (2734 to 3638) I'm worried this may not be a good sign... should I be?

[hildare]

  that's got to be very scary for you.  i really hope that everything is fine. 

i want it not to be the case for you, but it could be ectopic, with your surgery and with the lack of sac (though, again, that could be just earliness)...  before you start to worry about that, though, there is evidence that progesterone above a certain level would mean it isn't-- some say 11ng/ml or some say greater than 25.. though it can occur with any, that's one marker that physicians do look for. 

this is one article that describes evaluating it... 

eta:  keep us updated, if you will.. i had an ectopic before having my dd and it's my personal mission to keep it in the forefront (without trying to scare people like i was frightened) -- feel free to pm me if you want. 

best,

h

[Jaimee]

Keep in mind, too, that hCG levels stop doubling every 24-48 hours as you approach the 6 week mark.  So your slowing levels could simply be that.  Also, ectopic pregnancies tend to have crazy high hCG levels and yours are not crazy high for 5 weeks.  And on top of that, not seeing a sac at less than 5 weeks also is not surprising as often not much is picked up at all until 6 weeks when hopefully they see a sac, the fetal pole, and a heart beat (though it will be slower than usual since it just started beating).

Please keep us updated, hopefully everything is just fine! 

[Ramzubo]

Hey, hope you're hanging in there, I know this is scary. Hopefully it's not, but I just wanted to add that most women I've talked to with ectopic pregnancies have not had higher hgc levels. Any tubal surgery puts you at increased risk for an ectopic and since you've had the reversal it is a real risk. For my ectopic my hgc levels started out fine but then slowed down. By the time I had surgery to remove the tube, my hcg levels were about 1 week behind a normal pregnancy (I was 6 weeks but levels indicated I should only be 5). The transvaginal ultrasound can pick up either a normal or an ectopic pregnancy earlier so if you haven't had one of those maybe you could schedule one?

Best wishes and I hope everything is fine.

[akaAni]

Thank you for the well wishes. We have an appointment this afternoon for another ultrasound but we're dreading the worst... hcg levels are now dropping, went from 3638 on 5/19 to 1489 on 5/21. I have never gone through anything like this before and I'm not sure what to expect next.  

On the positive side, we now know that I CAN get pregnant and we'll try again!

[Jaimee]

So sorry akaAni!  Let us know how the u/s turns out.  It's really great how you're looking at the positive, but hugs to you as you go through this.