Stopped Crinone - miscarriage 4 days later

[mel73]

Hi everyone!
I got the fantastic news on the Monday that I was pregnant. My levels were 320. Everything was going great. Perfect even. Not a sign that anything was going wrong.
I had my last Crinone on the Monday night and by the Wednesday morning I was spotting brown gunk and I had pain which seemed to be period pain. I contacted the IVF clinic that I was going through and they advised me that it could be early signs of pregnancy or miscarriage. The symptoms were the same.
This continued into Thursday and Friday morning. I again rang the clinic as I was concerned as it was starting to get worse by Friday morning and I was told exactly the same thing.
By Friday (30.05.08) at 11am I started bleeding and by 2pm I had passed a clot the size of my fist and then I started flooding. I passed 3 clots in total before going to the hospital.
I rang 13Health as I phoned the clinic and the number rang out twice. They advised me to go the hospital straight away.
I arrived at the hospital at about 3pm and the pain was getting worse. I arrived at accident and emergency and I got in straight away because by the time I arrived at the counter, I had blood running down my legs and into my shoe. The pain was now like labour pain instead of period pain and the bleeding was absolutely horrible.
They ran a number of tests - internal examination, blood tests (my hormone levels had increased to 1600 from 320 on the Monday -in 4 days), external and internal scans and put in an IV drip to replace some of the fluids lost. I stayed at the hospital for about 5 hours. I am lucky that I didn't have to have a D&C as I was only 5 weeks.
On Monday I had to go back to my GP and get a HCG blood test to check my levels and they had gone down to 130, so there was no chance.
I am 99% positive that had I been given more Crinone support I would not be in this forum right now.
I have been to a Chinese Medicine practitioner and they said that they believe that it was the hormone imbalance in my system that caused it. Had I have known, there are herbs available that you can take at the first sign of bleeding that can assist and sometimes prevent threatened miscarriage. Too late now!! She also advised me that some women stay on Crinone for the first 3 months (instead of the 2 weeks that I did - once a night).
I am just wondering if anyone else has any experience with hormone imbalances that caused miscarriage?
We are going back to see our IVF doctor on 16th June to see when we can try again. I have come a long way in a week. I had thought last Friday that I would never want to go through that again. A week later I really want to try again and I am hoping that we don't have to wait too long.
I am already luckier than most as I have a beautiful 7 year old son. For this I am one of the luckiest people in the world!

[catherinemoses]

Hi Mel. I'm so sorry that you suffered a miscarriage. I had a miscarriage in Dec 06 and didn't get over it for a very long time. I have no idea why, I didn't know that hormonal imbalances can cause mc. I thought it was just one of those things.
I hope your next round of IVF is successful and has no complications.
Best wishes
Catherine

[briggsy's girl]

Mel - i'm so very sorry for your loss.

unfortunately, there are so many many causes of miscarriage that it's hard to say what exactly has happened. i have been on progesterone support (crinone/pessaries) and have lost my baby in a chemical pregnancy similar to yourself, but my body didn't allow it to pass until that support was ceased.

it is common practice, if you don't have known luteal phase defects, to cease the crinone once that first two weeks has passed, as the corpus luteum on your ovary from egg pick up (or ovulation in a natural FET) should produce more than enough progesterone to support your pregnancy. if someone has a luteal phase defect or goes through a medicated FET, then it's normal to have progesterone support up until week 10 or 12 when the placenta takes over hormonal support.

i know none of that helps you in your current situation. i know how very very hard it is to have something you've worked so hard for stolen away from you - and it's even harder when there are no answers - all you want is to know WHY - and, where possible, to lay blame. unfortunately, there is no one to blame - whether it was something amiss with your hormones, or something wrong with the fetus, no one could have predicted it - all they can do is help with additional support next time and hope that it helps you to take your baby to term

my thoughts are with you

BG

[sushee]

Hi Mel,

I too am so sorry about your loss.

BG has given great advice, and all I wanted to add was that at the time of your beta to check your HCG levels, they should have checked your P4 (progesterone) levels too. I imagine if this particular level showed that you were lacking P4 they would have asked you to continue the P4 supps. But the only way to know what your levels were at the time is to call and ask for your medical notes to be checked.

So with the assumption that your P4 levels were probably within an acceptable range for your FS to feel reasonably confident that you were producing enough of your own, then stopping the Crinone would not have made your levels bottom out to a dangerous level within 36 hours.

Which means it's probably not likely that stopping the Crinone had caused this painful event in such the relatively short time that had elapsed since your last application. Of course without knowing what your P4 levels were originally, it can't be ruled it out completely, so my suggestion would be, to put your mind at ease, and most of all to find closure, call your FS and ask him to explain to you what your P4 levels were at your beta, and whether or not staying on the Crinone would have helped. That way you will know for sure, and then decide if you can move forward with some faith in your medical team.

[mel73]

Thank you.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to reply to my message.
You are right. I am looking for an answer and like you say there is never going to be any definite answer. How much easier it would make things though, just to know why so that it can be prevented next time.
I am very lucky having a wonderful family already, and I really feel for those who don't even have that. We are lucky in the fact that we have 6 frozen and can try with those. I know how difficult it is for some of my friends that have had to go through the whole cycle every time, sometimes not even ending up with anything.
Again, thank you!!