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What is a clear egg?
Your pregnancy test was positive, while the first clinical signs of pregnancy: tense breasts, no periods, nausea, confirm it. However, your pregnancy will not result in a birth. No embryo never formed. This is called a clear egg, or “non-progressive pregnancy”. “Sometimes, although all the symptoms of pregnancy are present, and despite the implantation of the egg, or gestational sac, in the uterus, sometimes there is no evidence of any embryo ”, explains Dr Ariane Zaique-Thouveny, obstetrician-gynecologist at the Polyclinique Majorelle, ELSAN establishment in Nancy.
How do you diagnose a clear egg?
When the classic signs of pregnancy are present, it is sometimes the first ultrasound, the dating ultrasound which takes place around the 7th week of amenorrhea, which will reveal the presence of a clear egg. ” Some women may have a little bleeding that will alert them before this key step. A follow-up ultrasound will examine the gestational sac. If it is empty, a second ultrasound performed a week later will confirm the diagnosis, ”says Dr Ariane Zaique-Thouveny.
An obvious new step to digest
“It is very difficult to determine the causes of the presence of a clear egg. And when that happens, mixed feelings of guilt and incomprehension can assail you and make you sad. Do not hesitate to ask for psychological support to feel better », Recommends Dr Ariane Zaique-Thouveny. Rest assured, this inexplicable pregnancy anomaly is not the consequence of any behavior you may have had and, above all, it will not prevent you from carrying a future pregnancy to term.
The clear egg: a frequent anomaly
“You should know that the first trimester of a pregnancy is decisive. It is a delicate passage during which 1 in 4 pregnancies fail. In any case, know that pregnancies interrupted because of a clear egg had a good reason to stop. For genetic, chromosomal or toxic causes, for example, but we do not know the exact origin ”, specifies Dr Ariane Zaique-Thouveny. In any case, there is no inevitability “The clear egg belongs to the great chapter of first trimester fetal loss, which includes miscarriages or stopped pregnancies. And it is not because it happens to you once that the phenomenon will recur, ”reassures Dr Ariane Zaique-Thouveny.
Good to know : It is only after 3 miscarriages in a row with the same partner that a checkup will be offered.
What treatment for a clear egg?
Once the diagnosis has been made and the presence of a clear egg has been confirmed, you have three options, according to Dr Ariane Zaique-Thouveny:
- The first solution, it’s expectation. There is no risk of infection in letting nature do its work by expelling the clear egg. After 7 to 10 days, if nothing has happened, we will intervene.
- Medication. The miscarriage is then caused in two phases. 3 anti-progesterone tablets are administered to the patient in clinic or hospital. The second phase takes place 48 hours later, in day hospitalization. Two tablets, given at regular intervals, will cause contractions and bleeding, until the egg is expelled. This method has a success rate of at least 85%. Within 10 to 15 days of taking medication, a mandatory ultrasound will check uterine emptiness.
- Aspiration, formerly called curettage. This outpatient surgery is performed under general anesthesia to remove the egg or its residue when bleeding persists
How long to wait for a new pregnancy?
Do you really have to wait 3 months before getting pregnant again? “Once we have made sure that the uterus is empty, it is not necessarily necessary to wait 3 months. If the body is ready, the pregnancy will take hold, ”says Dr Ariane Zaique-Thouveny.
“The terrible announcement of a clear egg”: the testimony of Gwenola
“One night at bedtime, I noticed that I was bleeding. Already mother of a bigger one, I did not imagine myself lose a child. Very quickly, the bleeding became more profuse and the symptoms of this young pregnancy subsided. Doctors explained this miscarriage by the presence of a clear egg, which nature did well to eliminate. Realizing on the follow-up ultrasound that my uterus was “empty”, I cried a lot. This awareness was necessary. Today, I am the mother of a 7 month old baby in great shape, even though I felt terrible anguish about losing it early in my pregnancy. »Gwenola