Beta Numbers

Here are the blood test results after my retained POC was diagnosed in mid-August.

543 on 8/12

259 on 8/17

145 on 8/23

78 on 9/1

46 on 9/10

Beta HCG - What it is

Beta HCG is the pregnancy hormone. The fertilized egg and embryo produce it and it cause the corpus luteum to sustain and continue producing progesterone to support the pregnancy. It come from the embryo, not the ovary, uterus or fibroids. I don't know if it contributes to fibroid growth directly, but the progesterone/estrogen produced in pregnancy sure do.

BASELINE ULTRASOUND

A baseline ultrasound just helped to provide a comparison measurement before and after treatment. My RE wanted to see how it was doing since it had been almost a year since the previous scan. Without it I would have no way of knowing if it was larger or smaller than it had been so how would I be able to just if the treatment was really working.

I arranged for a second ultrasound to see if there was any change
from the acupuncture and chinese herbs, but note that I waited 4 months with continuous treatment -- change if any would come slowly
my acupuncturist assured me. I mentioned that I was pregnant for this second ultrasound so it is possible that there was additional
shrinkage but the pregnancy hormones didn't provide a clean comparison.

Your doctor may do yearly ultrasounds to monitor your fibroid, you
may want to go more frequently if you feel a lot of changes, every 6
months perhaps. If you are wanting to try to evaluate the affects of
a particular treatment a baseline comparison before and after will
help you to see the affects.

Fibroid Growth in Pregnancy - SIZE CHANGE

Considering that my fibroid only grew in the 18 months prior to treatment and then shrank back 2 cm I think that is a pretty big change. I knew that when I got pregnant I might experience growth (though I hoped I was the rare girl for which it would shrink) but it was important to me to try to shrink it beforehand.

It did grow, and quite a bit but what can one do. We were ecstatic
that we got pregnant and were taking it all in stride, unfortunately
no embryo developed so I had to have a d&c to terminate since my body was happy cooking along. It also shrank back some right away, I'm hoping we can shrink it some more.