How long does hcg stay in your system after miscarriage

How Long Does It Take For The hCG Levels To Fall To Zero After A Miscarriage?

Losing your pregnancy can be a traumatic event, both emotionally and physically. It takes some time, a few weeks, for your body to get everything in the right order after a miscarriage.

Home pregnancy tests detect a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in your urine. hCG is present in your body in appreciable amounts only when pregnant and increases predictably.

What happens to hCG and other hormones once the pregnancy ends due to a miscarriage? Can you still get a positive pregnancy test even after a miscarriage? In this article, we will try to answer these very questions. We will look at what happens to your hCG levels after a miscarriage and cover some of the most commonly asked questions about miscarriage and pregnancy tests after miscarriage.

How do hCG levels change after a miscarriage?

All at-home pregnancy tests, including the very affordable and reliable Fertility2family home pregnancy test, confirm pregnancy by detecting hCG in your urine. While a trace amount of hCG can be produced in your body even when you are not pregnant, the level increases several folds after you conceive. Your system’s peak of hCG concentration reaches around the 8th to 10th week of pregnancy.

If you lose your pregnancy due to a miscarriage, your body will stop making any more hCG, and its level declines gradually to the pre-pregnancy state.

Like any other hormone, the hCG level in the body after conception can vary greatly from woman to woman. However, there is a ‘normal’ range of hCG for each stage of your pregnancy. How long it takes for the hCG to fall to pre-pregnancy levels will depend on several factors, including the initial level of the hormone in your body during the initial stages of pregnancy. Similarly, the time is taken by your body to return to the pre-pregnancy level of hormones also depends on how far along were you in your pregnancy before the miscarriage.

The level of hCG should decline in an unfortunate event of a miscarriage. However, if your hCG is not dropping even after the miscarriage, it might indicate a serious health problem like molar pregnancy, and you should immediately consult your OBGYN.

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How long will I get my pregnancy test positive after miscarriage?

The time required to get the hCG levels to such low levels that the pregnancy test won’t be able to detect it will depend on how far along you were and what kind of pregnancy you had. It might take upwards of 6 weeks for the hCG levels to fall back to the pre-pregnancy state for most women in Australia. If you suffer from a miscarriage very early in your pregnancy, the time can be significantly shorter.

What happens in a chemical pregnancy & early miscarriage?

An early loss of pregnancy, soon after implantation, won’t affect your hormones a lot, and you can expect your hCG levels to drop to normal in days. Even if the hormones’ levels were high enough to detect pregnancy, they would decline rapidly without successful implantation.

When a miscarriage happens later in pregnancy?

Once the implantation is successful, your hCG levels double every 2-3 days during the early phase of the pregnancy. The peak levels reach around week ten, and after that, the levels pretty much plateau. If you miscarry later in your pregnancy, you have a lot of hCG in your blood, and hence it will take a long time for your body to flush it out.

When should you start trying to conceive again?

Some doctors in Australia might suggest waiting for several weeks before trying to get pregnant again after a miscarriage. However, there is no scientific data backing this theory. Several factors determine when you should start trying to conceive after a pregnancy loss, including your mental and physical health and medical history.

As miscarriage can take as much a mental toll as physical, you must be in the right mind before you start trying again. Physiologically, once the hCG levels are back to the baseline, your body is ready to get pregnant again. As we said before, there is no empirical scientific evidence to extend the wait; you should always take as much time as you want before you start trying again.

Is there any advantage in waiting?

Your doctor might want you to wait before trying again to let your body heal. It might take a few weeks for your body to physically recover from the trauma of a miscarriage, and waiting can give it the optimal time to heal.

Waiting for a few weeks might also allow you to mentally deal with the emotional aftermath of such a painful event.

Once your body starts healing after a miscarriage, it might take a few weeks to get the hormonal regulation back on track. Once your hormones fall into place, your menstrual cycle will get back to normal, and you can start trying again.

How do you avoid false-positive pregnancy tests?

As we have seen above, your hCG levels might take a few weeks to return to the pre-pregnancy state. Taking a home pregnancy test during this time, you run the risk of getting a false-positive result.

Your system still has some residual hCG, and it can be detected by the home pregnancy tests in the urine, giving you a positive result. If you don’t wait long before you start trying, getting a false positive can increase a lot. Hence, waiting for a few weeks is the best.

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FAQs regarding miscarriage and pregnancy tests

Here are a few common questions women have regarding pregnancy tests after a miscarriage.

Do I need to wait till my hCG levels drop to normal before trying again?

hCG can remain in your body for several weeks following a miscarriage. The time taken for the level to drop down to the baseline depends on when you lost your pregnancy and the initial hCG level in your blood.

Previously, women were advised to wait at least three months before trying to conceive again after a miscarriage. However, recent medical data suggests no reason to delay getting pregnant after a miscarriage. You should always consult your doctor before you start trying to conceive again, as they might be better positioned to suggest the best time, depending on your medical history.

Can a pregnancy test reveal whether I miscarried?

We strongly discourage women from using pregnancy tests to see if they miscarried for many reasons. Firstly, as the hCG level can remain high even after you have miscarried, a pregnancy test is not ideal for determining whether you miscarried. You may still get a false positive test even if you have already miscarried.

Can ovulation occur even if hCG levels have not returned to the baseline after a miscarriage?

hCG is responsible for ensuring that the progesterone level in your blood does not decline during the first trimester of your pregnancy. As the hCG levels are high in your body, it will suppress ovulation, and it will take some time for your body to ovulate normally following a miscarriage. However, your cycle will eventually return to the normal rhythm in a few weeks.

How can I confirm that I miscarried?

Relying on any home tests, including home pregnancy tests, is not wise to get this information. If you suspect something wrong, you should immediately consult your OBGYN. Your doctor will get a few tests done to determine what is going on before deciding whether you miscarried or not. The tests include blood tests, a pelvic exam, and an ultrasound to detect the foetal heartbeat.

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