STUPID Question

What is the difference between a chemical pregnancy and a miscarriage? or a blighted ovum? TIA

Re: STUPID Question

Chemical pregnancy… What is it? It is a term used for an early miscarriage. It is a pregnancy that has miscarried prior to the gestational sac becoming visible on an ultra sound. Pregnancies don’t show on an ultra sound until 5 or 6 weeks. At this point it is considered a “Clinical Pregnancy”. The names only refer to if they can or cannot see the sac with an ultra sound. Many doctors out there will tell you that it wasn’t real and it’s nothing to cry or grieve over. This is not true. A chemical pregnancy is a real pregnancy that was detected only by chemicals, not an ultrasound.

Miscarriage is pregnancy loss that occurs before 20 weeks, before the fetus is able to survive outside the womb. Most miscarriages occur in the first trimester or 12 weeks of pregnancy. As many as 50 percent of all pregnancies may end in miscarriage, because many losses occur before a woman realizes she is pregnant.

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 Nowadays, the term "blighted ovum" is considered out of date.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.

Re: STUPID Question

thanks Kara

Re: STUPID Question

NOTHING is stupid!!! although we are all in the same boat, all of our experiences and knowledge is different.

keep the questions coming!

Re: STUPID Question

Oh yeah - I totally looked those answers up BTW!!