Today, we will discuss positive pregnancy test after a miscarriage. Every year 50000 pregnancies in the US end due to a miscarriage. Out of this only 10–20 % of these are cases of diagnosed pregnancies. The other 75% of them are chemical pregnancies. It means that the pregnancy gets terminated without your will.
Most of the times what you take as periods is a miscarriage. In this case, it doesn’t affect your mental state much. But after getting a positive pregnancy test miscarriage is very depressing.
What is a miscarriage?
A miscarriage is when you are pregnant, and you experience spontaneous or induced loss of pregnancy. Miscarriage occurs within the first 20 weeks. Whatever be the reason for miscarriage it is not an intentional one.
What is an abortion?
Abortion is intentional termination of pregnancy. It is an informal term and encompasses both medical and natural ways of abortion.
How is abortion different from a miscarriage?
Abortion is a willingly done thing while a miscarriage is an unfortunate mishap.
What is a medical termination of pregnancy MTP?
Abortion carried out by a medical expert using safer procedures is medical termination of pregnancy.
How is MTP different from a miscarriage?
MTP is willfully done. A doctor might recommend medical termination of pregnancy considering health issues. But a miscarriage is an unexpected pregnancy loss.
What are the causes of miscarriage?
- A trauma or heavy jolt to the womb
- Hormonal misbalance
- Spontaneous miscarriage
- Age of mother not being suitable
- Infections and other health problems
- Smoking or drinking lifestyle issues
- Exposure to harmful radiations
- Incomplete diet for the mother
- Chemical pregnancy
- A wrong posture of bending or exercise may cause miscarriage
Early signs of miscarriage
Following are the signs of miscarriage:
- Back pain getting severe even without having much weight of baby bump
- Nausea and vomiting
- Intense abdominal cramps
- Vanishing symptoms of pregnancy
- Bleeding and spotting with spasms
- Wild contractions of the vagina
- Pink or brown vaginal discharge
- Weight loss
Risk factors for miscarriage
- Maternal age above 35 years is a major risk factor for miscarriage with a probability of 20–35%, and for above 45 years the probability rises to 50%
- Lifestyle habits such as smoking and drinking or even excessive caffeine consumption
- A previous miscarriage increases the risk of a second miscarriage to 25%
What does a positive Pregnancy test result after miscarriage mean?
After the sudden loss, a woman might want anything that would assure her that she still has her baby. For this, she might decide to take a pregnancy test after a miscarriage and even get a positive pregnancy test result.
However, a positive pregnancy test after miscarriage bleeding only means that your body still has the hormone hCG left.
Why does a positive test appear after a miscarriage?
A pregnancy test detects hCG hormone in urine. A woman after she gets pregnant has a placenta forming inside her. It produces hCG hormone that starts coming in here urine.
If hCG is present, your pregnancy test will give you a positive pregnancy test. It is irrespective of the fact that you’ve had a miscarriage. A home pregnancy test is a qualitative pregnancy test. It cannot distinguish the source of hCG.
A home pregnancy test is qualitative and only detects the presence of hCG in your urine. So it will even find the remaining hCG after the loss of pregnancy.
How long does it take for hCG to disappear after a miscarriage?
Some of you might be wondering how long it takes after miscarriage for your hCG levels to return to normal?
Your placenta after implantation produces hCG. It takes about a week after conception for hCG production. The hormone hCG is very high in pregnant woman in the first three months or first trimester.
It takes time to increase in level from the day of implantation. So time taken for hCG to disappear after a miscarriage will depend on the duration of pregnancy completed before the miscarriage.
So how long after a miscarriage will you get a positive pregnancy test? It takes 12–19 days after miscarriage for hCG to completely disappear from your body.
Incomplete miscarriage and positive pregnancy test
If hCG doesn’t disappear long after the miscarriage, then your doctor might do an ultrasound to find out if there are remnants of the pregnancy. Then you might have to undergo a simple D&C procedure to remove the embryo parts.
The D&C procedure after a miscarriage will remove everything left from the previous pregnancy.
Then your hCG will go down, and your body will become suitable for the next pregnancy.
When can you get pregnant again after a miscarriage?
You can easily get pregnant after a miscarriage. Your chances of getting pregnant after miscarriage fall by only 5%. Pregnancy after a miscarriage is only slightly less probable compared to a woman who has never had a miscarriage.
Can you be pregnant immediately after a miscarriage?
Yes. If you are sexually active and are getting a positive pregnancy test, there is a probability that you are pregnant. You should consult your doctor if you are experiencing pregnancy symptoms after a miscarriage.
Positive pregnancy test after miscarriage 8 weeks
- Positive HPT after 8 weeks from miscarriage bleeding indicates an incomplete miscarriage.
- Positive pregnancy test after miscarriage 8 weeks also could mean that you are pregnant with a second baby.
- It could also mean that you had multiple pregnancies and only one of them had got aborted and other survived. It is very rare but does occur.
Positive pregnancy test after miscarriage 12 weeks
Positive pregnancy test two months after miscarriage is because you are pregnant. A positive pregnancy test result twelve weeks post miscarriage surely means that you’re pregnant again.
However, if you are not sexually active, then it may mean that you had a chemical pregnancy. But a chemical pregnancy doesn’t live for so long after a miscarriage.
A miscarriage is certainly a heartbreaking incident. Women go into severe depression. Men equally feel the pain. Try to meet people who have been through it. How they managed through it! Then they had a bunch of babies later. Meet councilors and seek professional help to overcome this depression and then try again.
As the male partner, it might be difficult to emote and yet handle the pain. But talking about it and being close in this time of agony will help you both.
