Low HCG Levels In Healthy Pregnancies
|
7 to 8 days after a woman gets pregnant, the human pregnancy hormone, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) hormone can be found in a woman. As the pregnancy grows, the HCG levels increases in the woman’s blood. Usually doctors measure the HCG levels in the early stages of pregnancy as it can be a useful resource for the doctors to find out more about the fetus as fetal heartbeat cannot be seen on an ultrasound at that point.
|
|
However, just measuring the HCG levels once will not give sufficient information to the doctors about the health of the fetus or the viability of the pregnancy. In the first 2 to 4 weeks after fertilization takes place, HCG levels double every 48 to 72 hours. At that point the HCG levels are at 1200 IU. For the HCG levels to increase to 6000 IU, it takes around 72 to 96 hours. And any increase over 6000 IU takes 4 days to double. This means that the rate of increase in HCG levels vary as the pregnancy progresses. However, if the HCG levels does not double every two to three days, it does not necessarily mean that there is a problem with the pregnancy. You can have low HCG in healthy pregnancies. Some normal pregnancies have quite low HCG levels but the resultant babies are perfectly normal and healthy.
HCG levels can vary tremendously after 5 to 6 weeks of pregnancy and they are not considered a reliable source of information. So even if you have low HCG levels it does not mean anything as long as the doctors are using ultrasound to monitor the growing fetus and everything is normal. Once the doctors detect fetal activity, the chances of miscarriage are usually less than 10 percent even if you have low HCG levels.
|
