Miscarriage can be a devastating loss that is typically accompanied by signs such as bleeding or cramping. However, a missed miscarriage – also called a silent miscarriage – is the loss of a pregnancy without symptoms. Typically, the woman discovers the embryo has stopped developing – or was never really fully formed – when she has an ultrasound and there is no heartbeat detected.
In miscarriage, the woman’s body typically begins to naturally expel the fetus when it has stopped developing. But, in a missed miscarriage, the body doesn’t begin that process on its own.
In some cases, if it is very early in the pregnancy and your doctor thinks there is a chance your dates could be off – for example if your menstrual cycle is longer than the standard 28 days by which ovulation and due dates are calculated – you might be sent for another ultrasound read by a radiologist. If the radiologist doesn’t detect a fetal heart rate, that ultrasound will be the last one, according to a Parents Magazine article.
Your doctor will also likely conduct a blood test to check the quantitative HCG levels (the pregnancy hormone). Those levels double every 48 to 72 hours in a healthy pregnancy. If it’s not increasing enough, and the ultrasound failed to pick up a fetal heart rate, then your doctor will break the difficult news that you’ve suffered a missed miscarriage.
Your doctor will then go over what will happen next, which depends on your personal situation. You may be sent home to wait and see if your body begins to miscarry naturally, you may be given a medication to help the body expel the fetus, or you may be scheduled for a D&C, a procedure that removes tissue from the uterus.
A missed miscarriage can happen to anyone and the reason is often unknown. In the majority of cases, the miscarriage is a result of some sort of abnormality with the developing fetus ““ and there was no way you could have prevented it. Unless you have experienced three early-pregnancy losses, your doctor likely won’t perform tests to determine why the pregnancy did not continue.
According to the Mayo Clinic, miscarriage is usually a one-time occurrence and most women go on to have a future healthy pregnancy. Less than five percent of women have two consecutive miscarriages.
