NEWS & KNOWLEDGE

What is a Blighted Ovum?

Causes

A blighted ovum is a form of abnormal pregnancy, and these are well-known causes:

• Poor quality of eggs or sperm that cannot further any development.
• Abnormalities of chromosomes in embryos. This can happen naturally and can occur at any age.  As women are aging, they may have chromosomal abnormalities in fertilized eggs that lead to embryos with abnormal amounts of chromosomes. It could be less or more amount with a pair of chromosomes, or it could happen to many pairs at the same time.

Symptoms of a Blighted 

In the beginning, women who have blighted ovums will feel completely normal as a regular pregnancy. Some might have stomach cramps or bleeding while others have no symptoms at all.

They will probably find out that they have blighted ovum when they go for regular ultrasounds and then see no developments in embryos.

Therefore, it can be very confusing and devastating to women who have to experience this. However, it is important for them to stay strong physically and emotionally and to remember that they can always try again. 

In addition, blighted ovum can happen to any woman, and the placenta will produce HCG hormones as same as in normal pregnancy but at a lower level. Some women also do not have morning sickness and do not have any unusual symptoms.

Recurrent