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How Accurate Is The Due Date Of Delivery After Taking Levonelle?
Hi
How accurate is the due date if someone get pregnant after she has taken the levonelle?
Same person has the scan at 10 weeks and 6 days and the scan shows crown rump length well below the 3rd centile. Is it safe to go by this scan to calculate her expected date of delivery?
Many thanks
How accurate is the due date if someone get pregnant after she has taken the levonelle?
Same person has the scan at 10 weeks and 6 days and the scan shows crown rump length well below the 3rd centile. Is it safe to go by this scan to calculate her expected date of delivery?
Many thanks
Tue, 5 Aug 2014
Hello and welcome,
If a woman gets pregnant after taking levonelle then her duration of pregnancy as per her last menstrual period may or may not be accurate. This is because levonelle causes irregular bleeding. It may also delay ovulation and so dating of pregnancy from the last period may be wrong.
So the pregnancy may seem smaller or bigger on an ultrasound as compared to date of periods and we call it wrong dates in medical slang.
Another reason for mismatched dates is problems in the baby. These can be identified by repeating scans every 15 days. If the baby is growing well as per the old scans then these problems are ruled out.
It is safe to calculate the expected date from scans done before 12 weeks. They do have an error of +/- 1 week but this is the best tool that is available as of now and many pregnancies are dated as per these scans. They do not make much of a difference in the pregnancy outcome as after 37 weeks the baby is formed and so we still have 3 more weeks to adjust the 1 week error.
So do not worry. Just get a repeat scan after 2 weeks. If the baby grows by 2 weeks then the baby is OK and you can use the first scan to date the pregnancy.
Hope this satisfies your query.
Thanks for using HCM.
Feel free to ask any more questions that you may have.
Dr Madhuri Bagde
Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist
If a woman gets pregnant after taking levonelle then her duration of pregnancy as per her last menstrual period may or may not be accurate. This is because levonelle causes irregular bleeding. It may also delay ovulation and so dating of pregnancy from the last period may be wrong.
So the pregnancy may seem smaller or bigger on an ultrasound as compared to date of periods and we call it wrong dates in medical slang.
Another reason for mismatched dates is problems in the baby. These can be identified by repeating scans every 15 days. If the baby is growing well as per the old scans then these problems are ruled out.
It is safe to calculate the expected date from scans done before 12 weeks. They do have an error of +/- 1 week but this is the best tool that is available as of now and many pregnancies are dated as per these scans. They do not make much of a difference in the pregnancy outcome as after 37 weeks the baby is formed and so we still have 3 more weeks to adjust the 1 week error.
So do not worry. Just get a repeat scan after 2 weeks. If the baby grows by 2 weeks then the baby is OK and you can use the first scan to date the pregnancy.
Hope this satisfies your query.
Thanks for using HCM.
Feel free to ask any more questions that you may have.
Dr Madhuri Bagde
Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist
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