Natural Miscarriage

When my reproductive endocrinologist discovered no fetal heartbeat at one of our regular appointments, he gave me the option to either have a dilation and curettage (D&C) or wait for the miscarriage to happen naturally. Though the decision was up to me, he did recommend the latter approach. I was too preoccupied with the sad news to ask why.

Cramps and Bleeding: A Miscarriage? (Updated Post)

On Thursday afternoon, while I was at work, I started feeling some abdominal discomfort. My first thought was that my lunch was causing me the problem. But we had had a company lunch, and no one else seemed to be affected. So I continued working, not really worried--that is, not until the bleeding started.

hCG Levels: What Do They Tell Us, and Why Should We Care

If you are doing infertility treatments, chances are your doctor will have you test your human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone levels about 12 days after your procedure to determine if you are pregnant. hCG can be detected in one’s urine or blood, but a home pregnancy test will not show you the amount of this hormone, only whether you have enough of it to be considered pregnant. Knowing the actual level on a given date, however, is important if you want to be sure that the pregnancy is going well in its early stages.