Pregnancy in back of uterus? Anyone heard of this?

[frannie]

I have been a lurker for quite some time now and decided I would ask everyone what they thought of my situation. I was wondering if anyone has heard of a pregnancy being in the back of a uterus where the normal vaginal ultrasound would not detect it. Because I think that is the case with me. I got a POSITIVE pregnancy test in January, after having some typical pregnancy symptoms. This was really a surprise to me because I have a 7 month old ds, am BF, no period yet, use protection, but there were 2 instances where it could have happened. I took a couple pregnancy tests after that, all were negative. Went to the OB in February and had blood and urine test there, all negative. Still feel like I am pregnant so we had a vaginal ultrasound done in march which showed a picture of the uterus with NO baby. The weird thing is that I had totally lost all the pregnancy weight and am a really petite person and had no tummy bulge whatsoever after a couple weeks of giving birth. Well now my tummy is bulging quite a bit more, feels bloated all the time, esp. after eating anything. Also I swear I could feel MOVEMENTS/FLUTTERING like I did with my first one. (I only have one dc 7 month old). Is this all in my head or what? Also I would have been around 11-12 weeks when the ultrasound was done, going off when I got the positive pregnancy test. Is there any chance the ultrasound could have missed the baby? Any one have any ideas? Also I will probably go back to my OB if my tummy keeps growing because I'm not gaining weight any where else and my eating habits are still the same. I would love to hear if anyone else has experienced something similar to this and if anyone has any ideas/opinions on what could be happening to me! Thanks so much, anxious mom.

[Marisa6826]

Did they not do a beta test to check your HcG levels? That is way more reliable than a pee on the stick test.

If not, I would definitely demand one. Also, did they make any mention of an ovarian cyst? Sometimes they can get quite huge.

I would think that a 12w fetus would be pretty hard to miss on a vag u/s...

-m

[frannie]

Me again. Yes they did do a quantitive hcg test in February. It was negative. When the tech was doing the ultrasound she thoroughly checked out both ovaries and they looked totally fine, as well as the fallopian tubes.
Frannie

[Marisa6826]

Hmmm. Then my guess is that you're not pregnant.

What did your OB say?

-m

[JoyNChrist]

Do you have a tilted uterus? (Ask your doc if you don't know.) I do, and I was told by the ultrasound tech that it can make it a little more difficult to see the baby.

But if your beta was negative, I'd guess you aren't pregnant. But you definitely need to keep communicating with your OB, just in case there's a problem.

[frannie]

When I was pregnant with ds, nothing was ever mentioned of a tilted uterus. Also OB said I wasn't pregnant even though he did not do a physical exam, like feeling for the uterus,etc. he just went off the tests and the ultrasound. I don't know if you can get a tilted uterus after giving birth?

[frannie]

Also if I am pregnant I will definitely switch OB's because I feel like they did not do a good enough job investigating my concerns.
-Frannie

[bostonsmama]

Since the beta came back negative after a positive HPT, you likely had an early miscarriage. It has happened quite a few times to people I know.

I also have a severely retroverted uterus and at 5.5 weeks there was a tiny gestational sac (which is actually pretty late from what normal women experience), at 6.2 weeks there was a yolk sac (albeit ges. sac was still small for dates), and at 8.2 weeks there was a heartbeat (measuring 1 week behind). All of this was done w/ tranvag u/s b/c they can internally see a retroverted uterus clearer than a transabdominal u/s machine. Even though everything slowly grew, my beta (blood hcg levels) matched the growth. Without that hormone hcg there can be no baby, although there can be that hormone without a baby (blighted ovum, molar pregnancy, etc).

I'm so sorry you're going through this. IIWY, I'd put a call into a gyn specialist or internal specialist to get to the bottom of this. Good luck!

[shilo]

not making light at all, so please don't take that way... i get those movement/fluttering feelings sometimes now, and your right, it does feel like it did at about 14weeks or so along. but i'm definitely not preggo at the momment. for me, it's gas and/or things just moving along in my digestive tract. this could also explain the bloating, but i'd definitely go check it out personally with my md. i only say that b/c abdominal bloating can be associated with more serious things too. if you're experiencing a change in bowel/bladder habits along with the bloating, make sure to mention that as well. i'd just call your docs office and let them know that something's not right/symptoms persisting and you need to come in to see the doc.

hth, lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[Puddy73]

Hugs! I just wanted to chime in and encourage you to go back to your OB/Gyn if you still feel that something isn't right. Abdominal bloating can be a sign of a serious problem such as an ovarian cyst or even ovarian cancer. Hope all turns out well - keep us posted!

Jennifer
Mommy to Annabelle 9/08/03 & Finn 10/31/05

"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." - Jimmy Buffett

[kellij]

I would go to an internal medicine specialist or an g.i. dr. It sounds like you might be having intestinal issues and need to get diagnosed. I've also heard of people getting tumors that make their stomach protrude, but it sounds like they looked for that. Since the bloodtests are showing no baby; the ob might not know what is going on as well as someone with a different specialty. I'm not really sure that your ob could do anything else. If you got a beta test and an ultrasound; I don't think there is anything left for them to check as far as pregnancy goes.

I have a tilted uterus and have seen the sac at 5 weeks and 8 weeks from a transvaginal u/s. Very clearly. If you are breastfeeding full-time and haven't had a period, you probably haven't ovulated. I got pregnant when my DS was 8 months old. My milk basically dried up and I started having periods again. I ended up having two periods and getting pregnant.

[JoyNChrist]

Wow, I just had to comment that you said that way better than I did.

[jesseandgrace]

I'm not a DR, so this is just my opinion, but I think you can be safe in ruling out pregancy (at least until the point of the ultrasound, you could get pregnant AFTER that). If your blood test is negative, and the ultrasound is negative, and the DR didn't indicate that it was hard to see your uterus, I don't think there is a baby there. I don't think the uterus is big enough to miss a 12 week fetus in the back or any other place unless there is a specific reason like a tilted uterus. I think you might have something else going on, and should definitely insist on more testing until you feel like things are better. I have also had times where my stomach has felt exactly like it did with the baby moving, but I wasn't pregnant. But, definitely not all that often. Good luck, I hope you get some answers.

[mommyoftwo]

I'm not sure about the positive pregnancy test. It could have been a false positive or an early miscarriage. Your other symptoms sound an awful lot like what I went through when I developed IBS. I am constipation predominant and I always thought IBS meant you had diarrhea. My abdomen swelled to enormous proportions and I looked like I was pregnant. It took me several doctors to figure out what was going on (this was the student health center so definitely not the best doctors in the world). I had not associated my symptoms with the food that I ate but after paying attention I realized that there definitely was a correlation. While fatty foods and caffeine will definitely trigger IBS, lots of really healthy foods do too. Many vegetables cause problems and foods with insoluble fiber like whole grain breads. I experienced a lot of discomfort and bloating especially after eating and was miserable. IBS is most common in women and most commonly develops in women in their 20's but occurs in men and women at any age. If any of this sounds familiar and you would like more info, please email or PM me.