A chemical pregnancy is like a
cruel joke. You take an early
pregnancy test around the time your period
is due that shows a faint positive. Naturally, you get excited and start
spreading the joyful news that you're expecting. Then, a few days later
you get your period and the doctor says, "It was just a chemical
pregnancy."
Meanwhile, you're left confused and possibly devastated. The term chemical
pregnancy sounds like a false positive
pregnancy test, as if you were not
really pregnant at all. But the truth is that a chemical pregnancy was
indeed a conception and is actually a very early
miscarriage.
What Chemical Pregnancy Means :
The term chemical pregnancy means that the miscarriage happened at a point
that a missed period and biochemical tests, such as an hCG blood test or a
home pregnancy test (checking hCG in urine), were the only evidence that
you were pregnant. The miscarriage happened before an ultrasound could
have shown a gestational sac.
When the pregnancy develops to the point that ultrasound could confirm the
existence of the pregnancy, the term becomes clinical pregnancy. Thus, a
chemical pregnancy would be a miscarriage before the fifth week of
gestation -- or within about week after your missed menstrual period.
Symptoms of Chemical Pregnancy :
The primary symptom of chemical pregnancy would be if you begin to have
vaginal bleeding shortly after having a positive pregnancy test. Blood
tests reveal low hCG levels that are decreasing rather than increasing.
Causes of Chemical Pregnancy :
Doctors believe that chemical pregnancies happen for the same reasons as
most other miscarriages –- probably because of chromosomal abnormalities
in the developing baby. It is hard to know for sure what causes these
early miscarriages, however, because it is nearly impossible to retrieve
any samples for chromosomal testing.
Frequency:
No one really knows how common chemical pregnancies are, but some
researchers have theorized that as many as 70% of
conceptions end in
miscarriage. Women who are not actively trying to conceive and not closely
watching their menstrual cycles may have chemical pregnancies and never
know it; in other cases, chemical pregnancy could be a reason (but not the
only possible reason) why a menstrual period arrives a few days late.
Physical Recovery:
Chemical pregnancies happen early enough that they have little effect on
women’s bodies, and in many cases, they can be mistaken for a normal
period that is a few days late (or even on time). One 2007 study found
that the bleeding after a chemical pregnancy is sometimes even lighter
than a woman’s usual menstrual period. The bleeding from a chemical
pregnancy might be accompanied by more cramps than usual also, but
recovery should be fairly swift.
Trying Again:
With a very early miscarriage, many doctors will say that it’s OK to go
ahead and try again right away. Other doctors recommend waiting to try to
get pregnant again as a standard answer after all miscarriages, no matter
how early. Talk to your doctor about what is right for your specific
situation.
Grieving a Chemical Pregnancy:
In many cases, chemical pregnancy might put you in a weird situation from
a grieving perspective. Some women don’t feel very sad over chemical
pregnancies, whereas others are completely devastated emotionally. People
in your life might not recognize the validity of your loss, insisting that
you are wrong to grieve because it happened too early for you to get
attached to the pregnancy or that “it wasn’t a real baby.”
Regardless of what anyone says, a miscarriage is a miscarriage. You do not
have to justify your grief or compare it to anyone else’s grief for it to
be valid. A chemical pregnancy was still a pregnancy, and for many women,
it’s still a loss of a baby and grief that will always they will carry for
their entire lives.
It’s also OK to not be too sad about a very early miscarriage and to
decide you just want to try again. Everyone reacts differently to the
situation, and there is no single, right emotional response to chemical
pregnancy.
If you do tend to grieve chemical pregnancies deeply, and you are actively
trying to conceive, think about perhaps waiting to test each cycle until
your period is actually late. This way, you do not necessarily have to
know about very early miscarriages. Many doctors recommend against early
pregnancy testing for this reason.
