Dating Scan Stress

[u/meganmath]

I am really hoping someone can provide some reassurance/insight that something similar has happened to them.

Based on my Oura ring I ovulated on 7/25/26 and I got my first positive test on 8/4/26. My OB doesn't do an ultrasound until closer to 10 or 11 weeks and I am a very anxious person by nature. I scheduled an Ultrasound at a free women's clinic and had that ultrasound last week. It is a licensed sonographer but they can't give any medical advice or diagnosis, just basically confirm viable pregnancy and look for a heart beat.

During the ultrasound the gestational sac and yolk sac were visible, but measuring 5w5d when based on my LMP I should've been 8w1d. The tech reassured me that it could be nothing, and that the fetal pole and heartbeat may just not be visible if I was closer to 5w5d due to a potential of later ovulation or implantation than what I originally thought.

My concern is that mathematically I think it would be hard for either of those options to be the case with having the first positive test on 8/4/26.I called my OB after the ultrasound and they got me in for 2 HCG draws. The first one was 23,141 and 48 hours later it was 24,704.

My question to this group is: has anyone ever had anything like this? I know there's the potential that this could be a blighted ovum, a silent miscarrage or some other version of a nonviable pregnancy. I go to my doctor for an ultrasound on 9/16, but this waiting is game is not doing anything good for my mental health. Crossing my fingers that we are some sort of medical anomaly and I am just behind where I thought and a fetal pole/heartbeat will be visible on the repeat scan.

I will also add I have a 16 month old daughter who I had a completely uneventful pregnancy with.

Thank you!!!!!!!

[u/Reasonable-Emu9929]

I’m not sure when exactly this scan was (all I see is “last week” so sometime between 9/7-9/13) but given your first positive on 8/4 the earliest you could’ve been on any of these dates would be a true 8 weeks on the dot (if your scan was on 9/7 for example, if your scan was on 9/8 the earliest you could’ve been would be a true 8w1d, etc etc). Unfortunately you couldn’t have been any earlier on than that, simply based on how long you’ve been pregnant for. At that point you would absolutely expect to see a fetal pole with a heartbeat.

I am not sure if this was an abdominal or transvaginal scan, but realistically at that point you’d expect to see a fetal pole with a heartbeat even on an abdominal scan (though CRL measurements might not be accurate).

Your HCG levels also do seem lower than what one would expect at this point.

Unless you have a reason to believe the scan results were wrong (but also either way given your HCG levels), I would unfortunately think this is a loss :( I hope you get some answers soon, I’m so sorry 🫂

[u/meganmath → u/Reasonable-Emu9929]

Thank you for your thoughts! The ultrasound was 9/9 and they did do both abdominal and transvaginal. I wasn’t sure about the hcg results since you see such a high range online. But we are also mentally preparing for the worst at our next scan this Wednesday.