A Question about Betas

[jrun2013]

I've been thinking a lot about betas today.  I had my first draw on Wednesday and they were at 149.  Today I had them drawn again and they were 208.  So, they went up about 40 percent.  My nurse said they were good, but a little on the low side.  She said they like to see them increase at 50-60 percent.  She wants me to come back next week to have them again.  I asked if there was anything they would do if they're still not rising very quickly or is it just to gather data and she said it was just to gather data. 

My question is, what's the point of betas?  If nothing can be done, why take them in the first place.  I get how it can be comforting if they are rising quickly, but if they're not it causes (hopefully unnecessary) worry.  Now that I know they're slow rising, of course I'll go back and get them taken again, I guess I just don't understand why they want to collect this data if they can't do anything about it.   

[aprilz81]

Something that always surprises me is that they always say "we want to see it double every 48 hours in early pregnancy". I see a lot of good articles (some scientific even) where they want it to double every 48-72 hours. That can make a big difference if a woman is having a slow(er) rise than the 48 hour "standard" they like to quote.

For practices that do early ultrasounds the betas help determine when to bring the woman in. For a vaginal ultrasound a gestational sac can be seen when the HCG levels get to be between 1500-2000 so tracking them 2-3 times can help them estimate when to bring someone in at a point where there is something to see.

Part of me thinks they track it for IF patients especially for the data and to try to provide the parents a little peace of mind. For IF survivors getting to this point is a happy thing but a lot of us are still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Measuring the betas allows us to know that for now things are okay and while beta limbo is NEVER fun it can also help prepare us for a potential loss.

**loss discussed**

With our chemical I stopped testing at 14DPO (negative) because I had been spotting for weeks. My period never came and I tested again at 18 or 19 DPO and when I went in for betas it was at 212. That sounded great at first, but a quick google search told me that it should be way higher than that so of course I was concerned. My second beta showed falling numbers so we knew right then that this would be a loss.

**end mention**

I'm sorry you are in beta limbo right now. Hopefully your embryo is just on the 72 hour plan instead of the 48.

[ashtog]

For me when I went in it was because I had two CP's and wanted to steal my heart against another, especially after we had lost Sawyer.

((Hugs)) it's so frustrating, but yes 48-72 and a rise is a rise.
It sucks though. I'm sorry.

[ellabee]

I'm sorry you're in beta limbo. It sucks.

I'll second just about everything aprilz81 said. It was spot on.

*loss mentioned*
I had a MMC earlier this year. We got 4 stellar betas followed by a scan at 6.5 weeks with a heartbeat. This time around, i didn't want to get betas at all because I didn't want to agonize over the numbers. In some cases, like my MMC, even awesome numbers don't mean anything. So for me, there wasn't really an upside to having to take off work.

My OB even said that the data is more for peace of mind for me if I want it. Otherwise we should just rely on an early scan to judge progress (which they need 1 beta for to know when to schedule).

[rinny]

Betas can be a mindfuck for sure. I haven't had them this pregnancy, but last time I was having tons of red spotting so they drew them to see if my hcg was high enough for an ultrasound.

[flcl]

((Hugs)) jrun2013. Betas can be helpful but I was under the same mindset... If they can't do anything to help the situation, what's the point of going in continuously for them? We opted to do only 2 draws and then waited for an app with my obgyn. Seeing the numbers help some women during the wait. FX your next draw has awesome increases.

[jrun2013]

ellabee, ashtog, aprilz81, I'm very sorry to hear about your losses.

Thank you everyone for all of your replies. It's interesting how many of you were given a choice. Last pregnancy it wasn't ever mentioned, but this time I had to use an RE and wasn't presented with a choice. Just told to come back to check the levels in two days after the initial test.

[NariaDreaming]

Since I'm on progesterone, we've done repeat draws since if it was a non-viable pregnancy, the progesterone would keep me from bleeding until we stopped treatment.

Also, last night it was handy knowing my levels were 1,000+ on Wednesday since it meant we would most likely be able to see something on u/s yesterday.

Yesterday's draw also gives us a point of reference for Tuesday- to know if little poprock is still growing or if my levels are dropping.


I'm also going to throw out there- my doubling times were on the slow end of normal last week (71 and 61 hours, respectively) and based on yesterday's draw now closer to 34 hours