Question: Hi, I'm 36 years old and 10wks 5days pregnant. It is my second pregnancy - first was uneventful and I gave birth at 39 wks in December 2014.

I live in the UK and on the NHS one does not see a specialist until later in the pregnancy so, so far, I have only come into contact with Midwives and sonographers.

I had some mild but bright red bleeding in wk 5 which led to an early scan at 5 wks 5 days. All was normal on this scan although heart rate wasn't yet fully detectable. However, I made the mistake of googling the yolk sac diameter which at 4.7 mm was on the large side.

2 weeks later, I had another scan where heartbeat was detected. I only got a very basic report for this scan so no measurements but pregnancy was confirmed as viable and scan 'unremarkable' so I assumed measurements had normalised.

Today, I had a scan at 10 wks, 5 days. This was a viability scan which was offered as part of the Harmony Test package. Scan was performed transabdominally and results were as follows:
Gestational sac: 20mmx37mmx45mm
Yolk sac 6.2mmx6.4mmx6.8mm
Heartbeat: 171bpm
Gets Sac (Mean) 34.0mm
Gets sac vol: 17.4ml
Yolk sac (mean) 6.5mm
CRL 40.5mm

I now need to wait 2 weeks for the harmony test results which will be combined with NT scan results to form a clear picture re trisomies. However, I am feeling very anxious about the yolk sac diameter as almost everything I have read online suggests that a yolk sac of >6mm is suggestive of impending miscarriage or chromosomal abnormalities.

I suffer quite badly from anxiety and know that this uncertainty is going to affect me over the next two weeks. Obviously I realise there are no guarantees at this stage but I wonder whether you might be able to offer me some degree of reassurance that this measurement in conjunction with my other results at this stage may not be as negative as the online literature suggests as I have a feeling that I may be torturing myself needlessly in the absence of accurate information.

If the news is bad in 2 wks I will deal with it accordingly but I have a habit of endless googling which does no good so I wondered if you might be able to give me an informed opinion.

Many thanks indeed,
XXXX