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Hi,
I had a HCG blood test at 8 weeks & 1 day pregnant (since LMP). The result came back as being high, at 170,000. The "normal" high limit on the lab report was 100,000. Has anybody had similar high results and had any good/bad experiences with that?
I had an ultrasound on the same day as the blood test, this showed embryo was fine (size was 8 weeks, heartbeat 175bpm, yolk sack fine, gest sac fine). There was only 1 embryo - not twins!
Thanks, I am stressing a lot about this!
jja
Hi,
Mine were at similar levels to yours when I was first pregnant with my son: I convinced myself it was twins until I had the first scan which showed just one.
High levels of HCG can mean a touch more morning-sickness, but apart from that, I think it all levels out by 12 weeks......
Bear in mind that the HCG levels they give as averages are exactly that......just averages.....so I honestly don't think it is anything to stress about......
Welcome to BellyBelly by the way!
Thanks Lucy. I just find that I'm really getting worried about every little thing that comes along (had some light spotting the day before the test - that's the reason why I had the u/s and blood test). Why does the lab say its high, that is weird. I haven't had morning sickness - I've had evening sickness! Thrown up quiet a few times now. I get worse as the day goes on - mornings are my best time :) Evenings not good.
Its comforting to know that you had high levels and everything turned out ok. Anybody else had the same thing?
Thanks!
jja
My levels have always been heaps higher than the "normal" rates for HCG, both pregnancies. With this one we were scared of twins too because it was almost double the normal range... but alas only one baby & heaps of m/s.
Heaps of PG sickness here as well, but only one baby on the way!!! My HCG levels were pretty high to begin with as well.
I've done some more research. It looks like higher hcg levels at the time of the screening tests (not earlier on) do indicate a higher risk of downs syndrome. The tests are either *free* beta-hcg which can be done in 1st-tri or that or total beta-hcg later on around week 15.
I'm guessing my levels won't be much lower by the time I have my test at week 12 as they should generally go up a bit more until week 9 or 10 before starting to come down a bit. So I will have 2-3 times the median level (somewhere around 40000-60000) which is a screening marker for downs. More than 2 multiples of the median level is a sign.
But that doesn't necessarily mean my baby has down's, it just increases the risk from 1 in say 400 (I am 32) to about 1 in 80 :(
Anybody else have their own research that confirms or disagrees with this?
In a way I wish I didn't get the blood test!!! We will be keeping the baby regardless of the screening test in a few weeks, and wouldn't do amnio or cvs.
Lucy did you do any pre-natal screening? Were your results high then, what was your "risk"?
Thanks!!
jas