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What Do These Numbers Mean???? Part III Pregnancy monitoring

OK, so you have completed your cycle, be it the old fashioned way (intercourse), IUI, IVF. You call with a positive home pregnancy test or you come in for your scheduled pregnancy test. If you got lucky the old fashioned way, we are going to check your progesterone (P4) level. If your level is over 15 ng/mL…..kudos to you. If it is less than 15 ng/mL we will start you on progesterone support. You look at your pregnancy test results (hCG level) and you see a number. What does this mean? Again, there is that "normal" word. Anything over the level 5 ng/mL is considered positive. A single blood test is in NO WAY an indicator of a good or bad pregnancy.

So you have a positive pregnancy test. What next? We will bring you in 2 days later for another blood test. We want to see at least a 60% rise every other day. If we see that 60% rise, you will come back 1 week later for your last blood test and your first pregnancy ultrasound. At this ultrasound examination, we are looking only for a sac in the uterus. It is the following week that we will be looking for a heart beat. There are occasions when your hCG levels starts out low that you may have to have a few more blood tests before your first sono. We generally can’t see anything on ultrasound until your level is over 1,500 iu/mL. Once we have heartbeat, you will come in weekly until you are discharged to your OB/Gyn.

You call/portal the office and stated that you are bleeding and/or spotting. I know this is horribly devastating for you but…….this too, does NOT mean that things didn’t work. You can have bleeding and spotting for a number of reasons. If you are using progesterone support, remember, what goes in must come out. If you are having bleeding and using progesterone support the Crinone or Endometrin will bring everything in the vagina out with it. This can be all sorts of colors. It will also be clumpy like cottage cheese. Brown blood is old blood and is very normal. Your cervix is very vascular and just touching it with a progesterone applicator can cause it to bleed. "But I didn’t feel anything". The cervix has very few nerve endings and you normally wouldn’t feel it. You could be having bleeding at the site the embryo implanted. It could also be that you are getting your period and unfortunately, there is nothing anyone can do to stop this from happening.

If you ever have questions about what your numbers mean, we are here for you.

These are your pregnancy numbers in a nut shell. I know…..HIPP HIPP HORRAY!!!!!!!!

Infertility Infertility treatment InVia Fertility Specialists

Jennifer Moroniak

Jennifer Moroniak

I have been a nurse since 1993. I have worked in different areas such as, vascular surgery, internal medicine, dermatology and Infertility. I have not only been working in the infertiltiy field for 8 years, I was also a patient where I now work. I feel that this gives me an edge with the patients because "I have been where you are." People always ask, "Did it work?" My son is 12 and we are very happy and blessed.

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