A: It is possible to experience a miscarriage without bleeding or spotting. Other signs that a person may be experiencing a miscarriage include cramps, pain, loss of pregnancy symptoms and passing discharge, which may be stringy and/or whitish-pink in colour. Any, all or none of these symptoms may be present.
Bleeding during pregnancy loss occurs when the uterus empties. In some cases, the fetus dies but the womb does not empty, and a woman will experience no bleeding. Some doctors refer to this type of pregnancy loss as a missed miscarriage. The loss may go unnoticed for many weeks, and some women do not seek treatment.
Approximately 1-5% of all pregnancies will result in a missed miscarriage.
The most conclusive way of finding out is to have an ultrasound done by your doctor or midwife to see baby's heartbeat. I say "most" conclusive, because even with an ultrasound, if you are early in your pregnancy, it can be difficult to see or detect a heartbeat with 100% accuracy.
How long can a missed miscarriage go undetected? Usually, a missed miscarriage will be detected at the first 12 week scan. As such, it's possible for one to go undetected for between three to four weeks.
The most common sign of miscarriage is vaginal bleeding.
This can vary from light spotting or brownish discharge to heavy bleeding and bright-red blood or clots. The bleeding may come and go over several days.
The symptoms are usually vaginal bleeding and lower tummy pain. It is important to see your doctor or go to the emergency department if you have signs of a miscarriage. The most common sign of a miscarriage is vaginal bleeding, which can vary from light red or brown spotting to heavy bleeding.
A: It is possible to experience a miscarriage without bleeding or spotting. Other signs that a person may be experiencing a miscarriage include cramps, pain, loss of pregnancy symptoms and passing discharge, which may be stringy and/or whitish-pink in colour. Any, all or none of these symptoms may be present.
While it's true that a loss of pregnancy symptoms can happen with a miscarriage, it's also true that symptoms can fluctuate in a normal pregnancy. If your symptoms disappear entirely before the end of the first trimester, it isn't necessarily a sign of miscarriage, but do tell your physician to be on the safe side.
The term refers to a pregnancy in which there is some level of bleeding, but the cervix remains closed and the ultrasound shows that the baby's heart is still beating.
Easing Your Miscarriage Fears
Take time to practice mindfulness, meditation, and take some time for yourself. This could include any stress-reducing activities you enjoy like yoga or going for a walk.
But sometimes the body has trouble passing the tissue, and the miscarriage remains incomplete until a woman seeks treatment. If the tissue isn't removed, the incomplete miscarriage can cause very heavy bleeding, prolonged bleeding, or an infection.
If you are having miscarriage symptoms and want an answer on whether your pregnancy is viable, don't rely on a home pregnancy test. See a doctor instead. Even in women with a confirmed miscarriage, a pregnancy test may show a positive result for up to a month afterward.
It takes time for your hormones to return to their pre-pregnancy levels after a miscarriage. The amount of the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) may still be high enough to trigger a positive result on a pregnancy test for several weeks after a miscarriage.
It can be very hard emotionally to wait for the miscarriage because you don't know when it will happen. When it starts, you will notice spotting and cramping and then, fairly quickly, you will start bleeding heavily. The cramps will get worse until they feel like contractions, and you will pass the pregnancy tissue.
Most miscarriages - 8 out of 10 (80 percent) - happen in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy. Miscarriage in the second trimester (between 13 and 19 weeks) happens in 1 to 5 in 100 (1 to 5 percent) pregnancies. Pregnancy loss that happens after 20 weeks is called stillbirth.
If it is an incomplete miscarriage (where some but not all pregnancy tissue has passed) it will often happen within days, but for a missed miscarriage (where the fetus or embryo has stopped growing but no tissue has passed) it might take as long as three to four weeks.
A pregnancy test may still be positive soon after a miscarriage because the pregnancy hormone (hCG) level has not decreased enough to make a pregnancy test negative.
Often, a woman can have an extra heavy menstrual flow and not realize it's a miscarriage because she hadn't known she was pregnant. Some women who miscarry have cramping, spotting, heavier bleeding, abdominal pain, pelvic pain, weakness, or back pain. Spotting does not always mean a miscarriage.
But even though a silent miscarriage has occurred, pregnancy hormones are still high. This means a pregnant person may continue to experience pregnancy symptoms such as breast tenderness, nausea, and fatigue, though possibly to a lesser extent than before.