D'oh !!!

I think that they said 8 weeks to me, although they can do them from earlier than that. The heartbeat develops in about week 5 so they can do them at 6 weeks +. I guess they like to leave it until 8 weeks to be on the safe side. I read something that if you have a viable heartbeat at 8 weeks the chance of a successful pregnancy are 98%, at 6 weeks it is 78% so I guess they like to wait as long as possible.

Im considering going for a private scan at babybond. they seem good. will do them from 7 weeks. Do you have to be referred to the AEPU by docs or can you get a scan just by calling them? just went mental at the docs and now they have agreed to do blood tests 48hrs apart for me. took 6 phone calls however!!! x

I found this online:

ability to identify an early gestational sac will depend on many factors, including the capabilities of the ultrasound equipment, your approach (vaginal or abdominal), your experience, the orientation of the uterus (generally it is easier to see if the uterus is anteflexed or retroflexed), and the presence of such complicating factors as fibroid tumors of the uterus. While a gestational sac is sometimes seen as early as during the 4th week of gestation, it may not be seen until the end of the 5th week, when the serum HCG levels have risen to 1000-1500 mIU.

found this too

the ultrasound scan is good only for gestation of at least 5 weeks old, when you'll have at least 1,500 mIU/mL hCG in your blood. Any gestation period earlier than 5 weeks will render an ultrasound scan quite useless.

So it looks like if all is okay I should get a 5/6 week scan?

great info thanks, ive just booked a private scan for saturday 15th october. at least i feel proactive this way. and it will put my mind at ease, Plus being on a sat is handy as work dont pay me for time off for appointments and i have to commute 1.5 hours to my local hospital clinic! x

I agree its a nightmare, our hospital is an hour from my work too!

I think each one is different. At mine, I had to be referred by the drs (which can be the difficult part!) some will accept patients directly. I rang them to find out as I wasn't sure. In the end I got referred by the out of hours dr at the hospital as I was bleeding on an evening.

In theory but I would wait longer if possible. During my last pregnancy they wouldn't scan me that early on (I was spotting) as there is a chance of seeing nothing which can be even more distressing than waiting. I would wait until about 7 weeks to be on the safe side.

How far does this make you then? About 7 weeks? I think that is about right. I would be worried that anything earlier wouldn't show much. I guess I'm just thinking back to my experience - I saw a sac, yolk sac, and foetal pole but with a very slow hb. I was supposed to be 7w5d - at this stage we knew that the heartbeat should have been stronger and so we knew something was wrong. The following week the hb had stopped. If I had gone earlier I wouldn't have known whether the hb was weak or whether it was just developing. I just think that things can be a bit ambiguous if you go too early.

i will be 7+2. another question for you both, i miscarried naturally, but only bled for 3 days, and passed one very small clot. did you guys experience long bleeds? x

No mine was the same, 4 days bleed, x

I was similar - but I had medical management. I went in on Friday and then bled for 4 days. I had spotting after that for a few days but only pinky CM. Why do you ask?