(not a thread for medical advice!!) What do you think about Vaginal Ultrasound?

Barring a few psychiatric excpeptions, which have criteria that must be met, no one is allowed to perform a medical procedure on you against your will. It is illegal. The doctor may or may not refuse to see you as a patient if you refuse his/her medical care, but they are not allowed to physically force a procedure on you. Legally, it is known as battery and can be prosecuted.

You can refuse just about anything you want. I always refuse the gtt and instead do the jelly bean equivalent.

Now hopefully you won't face this BUT be prepared for some possible attitude from the doctor if he/she doesn't like your decision. Also be prepared for possible eye rolling or condescening explanation about how a lady partsl ultrasound did not cause a miscarriage. (We all know it happens. If its too bad maybe you should evaluate whether you have found the particular practice you want to really work with for the next 9 months of so)

If you do catch any attitude, tell him as far as you know ultrasound wasn't available for hundreds of years so waiting a few weeks for an abdominal ultrasound probably won't matter.

I am not giving you advice, only telling you my experiences here and my opinion on what happened with you.

I have given birth to two children lady partslly following uncomplicated pregnancies. I have also had two miscarriages. Never in any of my OB experience (as a patient) did I ever have a translady partsl ultrasound done -- just the routine OB, over the belly kind.

I have had translady partsl ultrasounds previously, in clinic and ER settings. I have had several very painful ovarian cysts in the past and I believe this is a standard procedure for evaluating deeper pelvic structures like your ovaries.

I am not sure why your doctor chose to do this to you. Did he try an OB ultrasound first and not see what he needed to see? It sounds to me like what happened is he mucked around with your uterus enough that it may have caused your miscarriage -- can't say for sure, but with no history of lady partsl bleeding --> traumatic translady partsl ultrasound --> continued bleeding --> miscarriage sounds causal, ESPECIALLY considering you were four months along. By four months, usually you are past the risk period for miscarriage (of course, you can miscarry at any time, but they are far more common in the first trimester, and I believe after 13 weeks, a miscarriage is termed "late" and much, much rarer.)

I would be extremely concerned about this if this happened to me. Obviously I don't have all the details (but you do), and I would look at what happened and do some research and decide what you want to do (if anything) from there.

When I was PG with my second son (5 weeks) my OB did a lady partsl ultrasound.. my numbers were rising quickly and he thought I might have multiples and wanted to check and see... he said it was somewhat early for the belly type of ultrasound. It didn't hurt at all, a little uncomfortable.. but not painful. I actually loved being able to see my baby earlier than the 20 week regular ultrasound. :)

It is nearly impossible to have this kind of discussion without verging into medical advice, even with a request not to do so. As other posters stated, you do not have to "cooperate" with any procedure you don't want to have.

If you do not want to have this procedure, you can certainly call the practices of doctors you are considering and ask ahead of time if this is part of their routine OB work-up.

It's important to have good communication with, and a high level of trust in, your caregivers.

We wish you the best.

Thread now closed.