How can a pregnancy not be a pregnancy?
For couples longing for a baby, chemical pregnancy can be heart-breaking.
What is a chemical pregnancy?
A chemical pregnancy is an early miscarriage. Blood test, urine test called “chemical” test that can check the early stage of pregnancy. Although the pregnancy that can see yolk sac, the fetal heartbeat will be in a phase of the ultrasound scan, called “clinical” pregnancy.
Technically, a chemical pregnancy is a very initial miscarriage that occurs in the first few days of pregnancy. The embryo produces sufficient amounts of HCG for the pregnancy hormone to be detected on the initial pregnancy test, but does not progress into a clinical pregnancy.
Fertility patients know more about chemical pregnancies than women who conceive naturally. That’s because they test 12 to 14 days after their embryo transfer. They’re majorly on the case. Whereas non-IVF patients may just think their period is late.
A chemical pregnancy doesn’t always have signs. You may have some cramping. Or a discharge. Or a little bleeding before your ‘main’ bleed. Or no symptoms at all.
Cause of chemical pregnancy
Genetic abnormalities are the primary cause of biochemical pregnancy. Chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo prevent implantation and halt embryonic development.
Treatment of chemical pregnancy
There is no treatment for biochemical pregnancy but there still has the way of prevention by preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) before the embryo transfer.
Nowadays assisted reproductive technology (ART) can provide genetic defects detecting from changes in chromosome number (Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidy: PGT-A) and heritable genetic mutations carried by biological parents (Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Monogenic: PGT-M). PGT can provide an accurate result at 98%, preventing recurrent miscarriage and improve pregnancy rate.
So, you should consult a fertility specialist to help determine the potential cause of the losses.