Help--Will pregnancy test confirm miscarriage?

[MamaKalena]

I'm 9 wks pregnant and yesterday experienced light spotting. It continued today, not heavier, but more red and with clots of blood. And I'm not sure, but I think maybe my nipples are not as tender as they have been.

I'm wondering if a home pregnancy test would be accurate in determining whether or not I am still pregnant? I don't want an ultrasound and I wouldn't have time to get one anyway since I'm leaving tomorrow for a big family reunion. I'm really anxious about going because I just won't be in the mood to smile much or be around cheerful distant relatives if I have miscarried.

[bobandjess99]

NO..it could take a couple weeks for the HCG to leave your system, even if you did lose the baby, so any pregnancy test at this point would read positive, regardless of the baby's status.

Unfortunately, at that early in the game, U/S is going to be the ONLY way to confirm pregnancy/miscarriage. If you were even a week or 2 further along (10-11 weeks) you could POSSIBLY try to hear the heartbeat with a doppler instead oif getting an ultrasound, but even that wouldn't be foolproof, since in some women, you just can't hear the HB until a bit later, like 12-13 weeks, so you could get a false negative. (I had bleeding and thought I was miscarrying at 10 weeks, and luckily was able to hear a HB with a doppler, so we knew the baby was still alive.)

((hugs)) and I hope it turns out the way you want.

[MidwifeErika]

At 9 weeks it will take some time for the hcg to leave your body completely if you have experienced a loss. So, then a pregnancy test would show positive for quite some time yet amd would not at all be accurate in determining if you have had a loss or not.

[onelilguysmommy]

yep, it is high enough right now that it will take a few weeks to get out of your system if the baby didnt make it. youre going to either need to wait a few weeks and see what happens., or get an ultrasound. and i hope it turns out this wasnt a serious problem.

[Jane]

You could get a quantitative hcg blood test. If the number is very low, and your dates are good, it's likely you've miscarried. Otherwise you'd need to get two tests 2 days apart to see if the number doubles. If you are traveling, you could have one test done today and one done at the family reunion site - you take the filled out lab slip to the lab in the other town and they fax results to your midwife.
The statistics I have show that half of pregnancies with bleeding continue. I think the clots are less hopeful, but it's certainly not a foregone conclusion that you're miscarrying.