Positive pregnancy test?

December 15, 2005 9:10 PM

A pregnancy question, regarding pregnancy testing and HCG...

For anyone who has done IVF (or been pregnant) - an initial beta test 14 days post retrival/reinsertion showed a 10 hcg. 5hcg and under is usually a negative test, and 20+ would be considered positive. Next beta test in 5 days. What is the likelihood of an actual pregancy from an initial 10hcg result? Does anyone have a happy story that started out like this?

posted by sperare to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I know AskMeFi is supposed to be for answers (and I don't know the answer to your question), but my wife and I are about 75% of the way towards saving for our first IVF. Good luck! Here is hoping for the best for you and your baby.
posted by tayknight at 9:48 PM on December 15, 2005

My understanding is that the normal value varies per woman. 10 isn't very high, but if the second test is one week later, the value should be about 90 (HCG doubles every 2-3 days in the beginning of the pregnancy). Unfortunately, at 10, it is probably too early to tell. Sorry.
posted by Apoch at 10:24 PM on December 15, 2005

Like Apoch said, the real consideration is how the HCg rises. Don't panic about the 10 - as it mentions in the link, "caution must be used in making too much of HcG numbers". It could be that fertilization occurred later than they thought, or it could be that it didn't take. Honestly, if I were you I would try not to dwell on the number.
But as you are going through IVF, I imagine you know this and want to hear from those who have been there more than you want googlable cold figures.
Good luck to you, and please post an update in 5 days.
posted by Iamtherealme at 2:06 AM on December 16, 2005

I second what Iamtherealme said above. There is still a chance you/your partner may be pregnant, though it is slim.

We just went through the process ourselves and I am now 4 1/2 months pregnant with twins. It's a pain in the ass (literally, if you have to do the progesterone shots!) and an emotional rollercoaster, but just stay focused and positive about the goal.

GOOD LUCK!!
posted by widdershins at 6:22 AM on December 16, 2005

Best answer: My wife, Amanda, and I have done the IVF thing a number of times, and Amanda has done enough research to challenge the REs at their own game. She writes:

We've done a total of 5 IVF cycles so far (3 fresh and 2 frozen) and will be starting our fourth fresh cycle at the end of the month, so unfortunately we've had quite a bit of experience with this topic. Fresh cycle #2 ended in a chemical pregnancy. Our initial beta at 16 days past retrieval was 46. Two days later it had fallen to 37. I can't tell you how many hours I spent searching for info about betas during the wait for beta #2.

If you haven't already checked them out, two great sites for beta obsessing are The BetaBase and the IVFer's HCG Levels in Early Pregnancy Page. If you look at the betabase chart for 14 days past ovulation (equivalent to 14 days past retrieval) there are a few successful pregnancies that started out with betas in your range.

However, and I so hate to say this because I know how freaking hard IVF is, it doesn't look good. Most likely you're headed towards a chemical pregnancy. Another thing to watch for is an ectopic, but hopefully you will not have to deal with that. The only thing you can do at this point is retest and see what the numbers do.

Another wonderful place for IVFers is IVFConnections. If you haven't checked it out, I'd highly recommend registering for that site. The beta board is a wonderful place to obsess over beta numbers.

The truth of the matter is that sometimes not so great betas will result in successful pregnancies and sometimes wonderfully doubling betas won't. Last cycle we had great doubling betas, but I ended up miscarrying anyway. It's all just one big crapshoot.

If you're looking for a success story, here's a great one. BrooklynGirl started out with a beta of 14 at 14 days past retrieval. She now has a son. If that's not inspiration, I don't know what is.

Good luck to you. Dealing with a low initial beta is a torturous place to be. You'll be in my thoughts.

Amanda

In addition to IVFConnections, there's a whole community of IVF bloggers. Amanda has been blogging our attempts since the beginning, and she links to a ton of other IVFers.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:54 AM on December 16, 2005

The most difficult part of IVF for us was exactly what everyone is suggesting, not panicing about low initial numbers and being patient and understanding that the early numbers are less important than the amount that they increase. I don't remember our numbers but I do remember that they were very low at first but now we have a 4 1/2 month old boy. I actually seem to remember that the first 2 cycles were much higher with the initial numbers than the one that "took" was.
posted by GrumpyMonkey at 8:13 AM on December 16, 2005