What
is a blighted ovum?
 A
blighted ovum is characterized through
ultrasound by the absence of an embryo
(anembryonic pregnancy). A blighted
ovum is a common type of miscarriage.
It happens when a fertilized egg implants
in the uterus but the resulting embryo
either stops developing very early
or doesn't form at all. Nowadays,
the term "blighted ovum"
is considered out of date. Instead,
most medical professionals use the
term "early pregnancy failure"
to describe this situation.
With
an early pregnancy failure, you'll
get a positive result on a pregnancy
test, because the placenta begins
to develop anyway and starts to secrete
human chorionic gonadtrophin (hCG),
the hormone that these tests look
for. Early on, you may also have some
of the symptoms common in a normal
pregnancy, such as fatigue, nausea,
and sore breasts. Later, when the
hormone levels begin to go down, these
symptoms will subside and you're likely
to have spotting or bleeding.
What
will happen if I have an early pregnancy
failure (blighted ovum)?
At first you might notice some reddish-brown
staining, or have no spotting at all.
Later you might have cramps or bleeding
as your hormone levels recede. If
you're having cramps or bleeding,
or your uterus isn't growing as it
should, or if your healthcare practitioner
can't hear the baby's heartbeat with
a Doppler by 12 weeks or so, you'll
have an ultrasound to check on your
baby. If it's a case of early pregnancy
failure, the ultrasound will show
an empty gestational sac.
You're
likely to miscarry — that is,
to expel the gestational sac and accumulated
tissue by the end of your first trimester,
though it may happen earlier than
that. The miscarriage process can
take weeks, though, and once you find
out you aren't carrying a baby, you
may find it's too emotionally wrenching
or physically uncomfortable (if you're
cramping a lot) to wait for a spontaneous
miscarriage.
In
that case, you may be able to use
medication to speed up the miscarriage
process. Or you may decide to have
a suction curettage or dilation and
curettage (D&C) to remove the
tissue. You'll also need to have the
tissue removed if you have any problems
that make it unsafe to wait for a
miscarriage, such as significant bleeding
or signs of infection. Most women
prefer to let nature take it's course.
When
can I try to conceive again?
You'll probably get your period again
in four to six weeks after you miscarry
or have the tissue removed. Some practitioners
say you can start trying to conceive
again after this period, but others
recommend that you wait until you've
been through another menstrual cycle.
(You'll need to use birth control
during this time, since you may ovulate
as early as two weeks after you miscarry.)
Although
you may be ready physically to get
pregnant again, you might not feel
ready emotionally. Every woman copes
with the grief of early pregnancy
loss in her own way, and some women
find it takes months before they're
interested in trying to conceive again.
Does
having a blighted ovum once mean I'm
likely to miscarry again?
No. Although you're likely to be worried
about the possibility of another miscarriage,
fertility experts don't consider a
single early pregnancy loss to be
a sign that there's anything wrong
with you or your partner. Most practitioners
will wait until you've had two or
three consecutive miscarriages to
order special blood and genetic tests
to try to find out what's going wrong.
More
to come on Blighted Ovum | Early Pregnancy
Failure... . |
